HP LaserJet 4250/4350 Series - Software Technical Reference

Point and Print installation for Windows 98, Me, NT 4.0, 2000, XP, and 2003
Point and Print is a Microsoft term that describes a two-step driver installation process. The first step
is to install a shared driver on a network print server. The second step is to "point" to the print server
from a network client so that the client can use the print driver.
Hewlett-Packard provides drivers that are compatible with the Point and Print feature, but this is a
function of the Microsoft operating systems, not of HP print drivers. Windows NT 4.0, Windows 2000,
Windows XP, and Windows Server 2003 drivers from HP are supported only on Intel® X86
processor types. Any other processor types must use Windows NT 4.0 drivers from Microsoft.
To install the print driver on a Windows NT 4.0, Windows 2000, Windows XP, Windows Server 2003
server, you must have administrator privileges. To completely install the Windows NT 4.0 print driver
on the Windows NT 4.0 server (or the Windows 2000 print driver on the Windows 2000 server), you
must have administrator privileges on the server. The Windows NT 4.0 Printer .INF file (or the
Windows 2000 Printer .INF file) must contain the same product name as the Windows 98 or
Windows Me printer .INF file.
Point and Print installation of a postscript driver is supported only with a Microsoft Windows 98 or
Windows Me PS driver V4.0 or later.
In a homogenous operating system environment (one in which all of the clients and servers running
the same operating system), the same print driver version that is vended from the server to the
clients in a Point and Print environment also runs and controls the print queue configuration on the
server.
However, in a mixed operating system environment (one in which servers and clients might run on
different operating systems), conflicts can occur when client computers run a version of the print
driver that is different from the one on the print server.
With Windows NT 4.0, print drivers are executed in kernel mode. A kernel mode process runs in a
specially privileged part of the operating system that gives the process access to all of the system
resources. Consequently, a misbehaving driver can cause serious system stability problems,
including operating system crashes.
In an effort to increase operating system stability, Microsoft determined that, starting with
Windows 2000 and continuing with all future operating systems, print drivers would run as user-mode
processes. User-mode drivers execute in a protected part of the operating system just like all of the
normal end-user processes and software programs. A user-mode print driver that misbehaves is
capable of crashing only the process in which it is running, and cannot crash the whole operating
system. Because access to critical system resources is restricted, overall operating system stability
is increased.
Setting a default printer
This section applies to the Windows 98, Windows Me, Windows NT 4.0, Windows 2000,
Windows XP, and Windows Server 2003 operating systems.
1 In Windows 98, Windows Me, Windows NT 4.0, and Windows 2000 OSs, click Start, click
Settings, and then click Printers. In Windows XP and Windows Server 2003, click Start, click
Control Panel, click Printers and Faxes (Windows XP Professional) or Printers and other
hardware devices (Windows XP Home).
2 Right-click the product that you want to set as the default printer.
3 Click Set As Default. A check mark appears next to the menu option.
Installation instructions 273
Windows installation