Managing and configuring printer drivers
Your system or network administrator can use the driver management and configuration
solution to configure printer drivers before you install and deploy them within your
environment. This is helpful when you configure printer drivers for multiple workstations or
printers that share the same configuration.
When you preconfigure your printer driver to match the printer hardware, you can gain
access to all of the printer accessories through the driver. You can also configure most driver
feature settings. Five of the driver features can be "locked." This means that you can choose
not to allow users to change the duplex, print color as gray, input tray, output tray, and
media type settings. (Some features might not apply to all printers. For example, some
printers do not include color printing or duplexing.)
The driver management and configuration solution saves time and reduces management
costs. Previously, if an administrator wanted to configure printer drivers, the configuration
had to be completed at each client workstation. Because the driver management and
configuration solution offers multiple configuration options, administrators can create a single
configuration, in a central location, that best fits their software installation and deployment
strategy.
The driver management and configuration solution also gives administrators more control
over their printing environment, because they can deploy drivers that share the same
configuration across an entire organization. They can use the "lock" feature to support
organization initiatives. For example, if a printer includes a duplexer, locking the duplex
setting ensures that all print jobs are printed on two sides to save paper. All of the controls
can be deployed from a single computer.
Two methods are available:
● HP Web Jetadmin software plug-in
● Customization utility
Regardless of the configuration method that is used, one configuration can be shared by all
printer drivers for a given printer model with one pass through either the plug-in or the utility.
The single configuration provides support for multiple operating systems, printer driver
languages, and localized language versions.
A single configuration file is associated with all supported drivers, and can be modified by
using either the plug-in or the utility.
HP Web Jetadmin software plug-in
A driver management and configuration plug-in is available for the HP Web Jetadmin
software. You can use the plug-in to configure the printer drivers before installation and
deployment. This method for managing and controlling printer drivers provides a complete,
end-to-end solution that you can use to set up and configure the printer, the print path
(queue), and the client computers or workstations. The following activities are included in the
workflow:
● Discover and configure the printer(s).
● Discover and configure the print path on the server(s). You can have multiple servers
configured in a batch, or multiple printers (of the same model type) using a single server.
● Obtain the printer driver(s). You can install multiple drivers for each print queue that is
connected to a server in environments that support multiple operating systems.
● Run the configuration editor (the editor is not supported for some older drivers).
ENWW Managing and configuring printer drivers 99
