Autoconfiguration Details
Autoconfiguration works by means of bi-directional printer communication (also known as bidi communication) between the print subsystem and the printer. For autoconfiguration to work, the printer must be able to:
Understand a query sent by the port monitor.
Generate the appropriate response to the query.
To support autoconfiguration, both the printer driver and the port monitor must be modified.
The printer driver must:
Be aware of the bidi notification schema.
Be able to receive notifications about device configuration changes using the bidi notification schema.
Be able to solicit configuration data from the printer using the bidi communication interfaces, and specifically the IBidiSpl2 COM interface.
The port monitor must:
Support a device protocol capable of querying the printer's configuration.
Be able to receive unsolicited status messages from the printer.
Convert unsolicited status messages to an appropriate driver notification.
Keep all of the device status and configuration data current by means of polling or alerts.
Inform the driver or application of any configuration changes in the device.
Autoconfiguration is supported in Windows Vista. However, in a configuration using Point and Print, the port monitor on the server and the driver on the client must both be capable of bidi communication.
This section contains the following topics: