HP Designjet Universal Print Driver User Manual download pdf (Page 232)

232

Versioning of print driver shared files

All of the files for all the printer drivers on Windows operating systems are located in one folder:

%WINDIR%\system32\spool\drivers\, where <environment> can be W32X86 for 32-bit processors, x64 for 64-bit

processors, etc.

The HP UPD consists of HP specific files and shared Microsoft files. The shared files are part of the UNIDRV or

postscript architectures. These files are shared by other HP drivers, and printer drivers from other manufacturers.

They can be upgraded at any time by installing a new print driver from HP or other manufacturer, or by installing a

service pack, .NET framework, or hot fix from Microsoft. For that reason, it is important to know the current version of

these files on your system, and if the installations of a driver, service pack, etc, will cause an upgrade. When an

upgrade takes place, all drivers that use those shared files will be impacted, so steps must be taken to verify that all

the drivers that use these shared files work with the latest versions. HP does not support upgrading from .5 to .6

versioning.

To determine the current version of these shared files, use the following methods.

1. Open the Devices and Printers folder, select a printer, click the Print server properties option, and then select

the Drivers tab.

2. To get the currently installed version of UNIDRV.DLL or PSCRIPT5.DLL, select an HP PS or PCL 6 driver.

3. Click Properties.

4. Scroll down until you see driver file UNIDRV.DLL, or driver File PSCRIPT5.DLL and click Properties.

5. If UNIDRV.DLL or PSCRIPT5.DLL do not appear in the list, the driver you selected is an old, “monolithic” driver

that does not use the shared Microsoft components. Select another driver and try again.

6. Select the Details tab.

7. In the Property column, see File version.

The problem described in this section is not unique to the HP UPD. It applies to all print drivers, including Product

Specific drivers and drivers from competitors of HP. It applies to both monolithic and UNIDRV / postscript based

drivers. The HP UPD, however, is the only driver that has the capability to efficiently address this problem.

In the enterprise, the goal is to standardize on a particular version of the driver, deploy it throughout the enterprise,

and stay with that version until business need dictates the need to upgrade. However, due to many legitimate

reasons, different versions of a particular driver will be deployed at any given time. It is in these situations that care

must be taken in how the different versions are deployed to avoid potential problems and unwanted side effects.

Basic Printing

Figure G-9 Basic Printing

1 2 ... 227 228 229 230 231 232 233 234 235 236 237 ... 300 301

No comments

HP Designjet Universal Print Driver User Manual Page 232