Print Driver Packages

In Windows Vista, Setup and the printing infrastructure use complete driver packages whenever possible. A driver package consists of all the hardware and software components you must supply in order for your device to be supported under Windows.

The driver package options for printer installation include the following:

Local printer installation. When a user installs a new printer driver on a Windows Vista machine, Setup automatically adds the complete print driver package to the driver store and then installs the driver.

Remote printer installation. When a user installs a print driver on a remote Windows Vista machine, Setup adds the print driver package to the driver store on the remote machine and then installs the print driver from the driver store on the remote machine.

Package point and print. When a Windows Vista client connects to a shared printer on another machine that is running Windows Vista and it needs to download the driver, package point and print copies the driver package from the driver store on the remote print server to the driver store on the client. Then package point and print installs the driver on the local machine from the local driver store.

Web package point and print. When a Windows Vista client uses Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) to connect to a shared printer that is hosted by a Windows Vista print server and has a driver package, web package point and print installs the driver in the same way as package point and print.

Introduction to Printing

The Microsoft Windows printing architecture consists of a print spooler and a set of printer drivers. By calling device-independent functions, applications can create print jobs and send them to many devices. This includes laser printers, vector plotters, raster printers, and fax machines.

Printer drivers include a rendering component and a configuration component. The rendering component converts the graphics commands from the application into a data format that the printer uses to render the image on the page. The configuration component contains a user interface component that enables users to control a printer’s selectable options and a program interface that communicates the printer’s configuration and features to an application.

When a Microsoft Win32 GDI application prints, it calls GDI functions in the Win32 API. These functions pass the information to the GDI graphics engine. The GDI graphics engine either spools the drawing instructions as an enhanced metafile (EMF) file or, together with a printer driver, renders a printable image that can be sent to the spooler. Spooler components interpret EMF files, and they can insert page layout information and job control instructions into the data stream. The spooler then sends the data stream to the serial, parallel, or network port driver associated with the target printer’s I/O port. In addition, if printing to an XPS device, the GDI print commands are converted through the GDI to XPS conversion component, and the print job is sent down the XPS print path.

In the XPS print path, printer drivers are based on the XML Paper Specification (XPS). When a Microsoft Win32 XPS application prints, the application calls XPS functions in the XPS Print API. When it prints to queues with XPSDrv printer drivers, the spooler passes the XPS spool file straight to the device for rendering and output. When the XPS file is printed to a GDI device, it is converted to an EMF file through the XPS to GDI Conversion Module. It is then sent through the GDI print path in a manner similar to Win32 GDI applications.

Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF) applications call WPF print support functions to spool XPS documents to the spooler in the XPS spool file format. As when printing from Win32 XPS applications, when the spooler prints to print queues with XPSDrv printer drivers, the spooler passes the spooled file in its original format to the XPSDrv printer driver for rendering and output to the printer. When the spooler prints to printers that have GDI-based, version 3 printer drivers, the spooler sends the data in the XPS spool file format to the GDI Conversion Module for conversion to an EMF file. It then sends the data to the GDI-based printer driver for printing. For more information about these data paths, see Windows Print Path Overview. For more information about XPS, see the XML Paper Specification Overview.

Spooler and driver components are replaceable, so hardware vendors can easily add support for new hardware. For more information about print spooler and driver components, see the following sections:

Support for a new printer usually requires only creating new data files for use with one of the Microsoft-supplied printer drivers. For more information about Microsoft printer drivers, see Printer Driver Overview.

You can customize the behavior of the Microsoft Universal Printer Driver and the Microsoft Postscript Printer Driver. For more information, see Customizing Microsoft’s Printer Drivers. You can also customize the print spooler. For more information, see Customizing Print Spooler Components.

Printer Driver Architecture

Print jobs are created by applications through calls to Microsoft Win32 GDI or, in Windows Vista, Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF) functions. The Win32 functions spool application data as EMF records for later playback by the EMF print processor, or they can immediately render a printable image for each document page. The WPF functions spool application data as an XPS spool file.

Prior to Windows Vista, applications communicated printer settings to the printer by using a DEVMODEW structure. In Windows Vista, the Print Ticket and Print Capabilities technologies communicate printer settings so that printer settings are more compatible across printers and applications.

Image rendering, whether performed immediately or during print processing, is performed in the print driver:

A GDI-based printer driver performs the image rendering during the playback of EMF records from the spool file and is controlled by the GDI rendering engine. During the rendering operation, the GDI rendering engine calls the appropriate Windows 2000 and later printer driver for assistance.

XPSDrv print drivers use a series of processing filters to process the XPS spool file content for output to the printer.

Windows 2000 and later GDI-based printer drivers must:

Assist GDI in rendering print jobs by providing printer-specific drawing capabilities that GDI cannot support.

Send the rendered image’s data stream to the print spooler.

Provide a user interface to the modifiable configuration parameters that are associated with printers and print documents, such as which input and output trays are selected, the number of copies, image resolution and orientation, and so on.

XPSDrv printer drivers have the same user interface responsibility as the GDI-based drivers and are also responsible for processing the print job data and sending the data to the printer. XPSDrv printer drivers, however, do not need to use GDI to render the page images for the printer.

Windows 2000 and later printer drivers are made up of a set of printer driver components that divide a driver’s drawing and user interface operations into separate DLLs. XPSDrv printer drivers are also made up of components that divide the configuration and the drawing and rendering functions into separate objects.

This section is intended to help you understand the different types of printer drivers that the Windows 2000 and later operating systems support, but you should also remember that the following three printer drivers are shipped with the operating system:

These three drivers support most printing devices that end-users can purchase today. You need to write a printer driver only if your printing device is not compatible with the appropriate Microsoft-supplied driver. You can support most new printers by simply adding a printer data file to one of the Microsoft-supplied drivers. Devices that might require a new driver include those containing hardware drawing accelerators controlled by proprietary command sequences.

This section contains the following topics, which describe the Windows printing architecture.

Microsoft Printer Drivers Download

After you upgrade your computer to Windows 10, if your Microsoft Printer Drivers are not working, you can fix the problem by updating the drivers. It is possible that your Printer driver is not compatible with the newer version of Windows.

• Updates PC Drivers Automatically
• Identifies & Fixes Unknown Devices
• Supports Windows 10, 8, 7, Vista, XP

Popular Utilities

Driver Updates for Popular Microsoft Printer Models

How to Update Device Drivers

There are two ways to update drivers.

Option 1 (Recommended): Update drivers automatically — Novice computer users can update drivers using trusted software in just a few mouse clicks. Automatic driver updates are fast, efficient and elimate all the guesswork. Your old drivers can even be backed up and restored in case any problems occur.

Option 2: Update drivers manually — Find the correct driver for your Printer and operating system, then install it by following the step by step instructions below. You’ll need some computer skills to use this method.

Option 1: Update drivers automatically

The Driver Update Utility for Microsoft devices is intelligent software which automatically recognizes your computer’s operating system and Printer model and finds the most up-to-date drivers for it. There is no risk of installing the wrong driver. The Driver Update Utility downloads and installs your drivers quickly and easily.

You can scan for driver updates automatically and install them manually with the free version of the Driver Update Utility for Microsoft, or complete all necessary driver updates automatically using the premium version.

Tech Tip: The Driver Update Utility for Microsoft will back up your current drivers for you. If you encounter any problems while updating your drivers, you can use this feature to restore your previous drivers and configuration settings.

Download the Driver Update Utility for Microsoft.

Double-click on the program to run it. It will then scan your computer and identify any problem drivers. You will see a results page similar to the one below:

Click the Update button next to your driver. The correct version will be downloaded and installed automatically. Or, you can click the Update All button at the bottom to automatically download and install the correct version of all the drivers that are missing or out-of-date on your system.

Before updating, use the built-in driver backup feature to save your current drivers to a specified folder. Use this backup folder to safely restore drivers if necessary:

Option 2: Update drivers manually

To find the latest driver, including Windows 10 drivers, choose from our list of most popular Microsoft Printer downloads or search our driver archive for the driver that fits your specific Printer model and your PC’s operating system.

Tech Tip: If you are having trouble finding the right driver update, use the Microsoft Printer Driver Update Utility. It is software which finds, downloads and istalls the correct driver for you — automatically.

After downloading your driver update, you will need to install it. Driver updates come in a variety of file formats with different file extensions. For example, you may have downloaded an EXE, INF, ZIP, or SYS file. Each file type has a slighty different installation procedure to follow. Visit our Driver Support Page to watch helpful step-by-step videos on how to install drivers based on their file extension.

How to Install Drivers

After you have found the right driver, follow these simple instructions to install it.

1. Power off your device.
2. Disconnect the device from your computer.
3. Reconnect the device and power it on.
4. Double click the driver download to extract it.
5. If a language option is given, select your language.
6. Follow the directions on the installation program screen.
7. Reboot your computer.

Printer Driver Architecture

Print jobs are created by applications through calls to Microsoft Win32 GDI or, in Windows Vista, Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF) functions. The Win32 functions spool application data as EMF records for later playback by the EMF print processor, or they can immediately render a printable image for each document page. The WPF functions spool application data as an XPS spool file.

Prior to Windows Vista, applications communicated printer settings to the printer by using a DEVMODEW structure. In Windows Vista, the Print Ticket and Print Capabilities technologies communicate printer settings so that printer settings are more compatible across printers and applications.

Image rendering, whether performed immediately or during print processing, is performed in the print driver:

A GDI-based printer driver performs the image rendering during the playback of EMF records from the spool file and is controlled by the GDI rendering engine. During the rendering operation, the GDI rendering engine calls the appropriate Windows 2000 and later printer driver for assistance.

XPSDrv print drivers use a series of processing filters to process the XPS spool file content for output to the printer.

Windows 2000 and later GDI-based printer drivers must:

Assist GDI in rendering print jobs by providing printer-specific drawing capabilities that GDI cannot support.

Send the rendered image’s data stream to the print spooler.

Provide a user interface to the modifiable configuration parameters that are associated with printers and print documents, such as which input and output trays are selected, the number of copies, image resolution and orientation, and so on.

XPSDrv printer drivers have the same user interface responsibility as the GDI-based drivers and are also responsible for processing the print job data and sending the data to the printer. XPSDrv printer drivers, however, do not need to use GDI to render the page images for the printer.

Windows 2000 and later printer drivers are made up of a set of printer driver components that divide a driver’s drawing and user interface operations into separate DLLs. XPSDrv printer drivers are also made up of components that divide the configuration and the drawing and rendering functions into separate objects.

This section is intended to help you understand the different types of printer drivers that the Windows 2000 and later operating systems support, but you should also remember that the following three printer drivers are shipped with the operating system:

These three drivers support most printing devices that end-users can purchase today. You need to write a printer driver only if your printing device is not compatible with the appropriate Microsoft-supplied driver. You can support most new printers by simply adding a printer data file to one of the Microsoft-supplied drivers. Devices that might require a new driver include those containing hardware drawing accelerators controlled by proprietary command sequences.

This section contains the following topics, which describe the Windows printing architecture.