Configuring Printer Driver Isolation Mode

Administrators can use Print Management to configure the Driver Isolation mode for each printer driver installed on a print server. There are several scenarios in which doing this might be useful to increase print server reliability. For example, if a print queue associated with a particular driver keeps crashing, the administrator can change the Driver Isolation mode for the driver to Isolated so that the driver runs within its own separate process. That way, other print queues on the server won't be affected when the driver crashes. The administrator can then contact the vendor to request an updated driver for the printer.

Another example might be when a vendor supplies the administrator with a printer driver whose quality is unknown. In this case, the best practice is to assign the driver to an isolated process and then collect and analyze crash statistics for the print queue associated with the driver over a period of time. Once the driver is determined to be sufficiently stable, the administrator can move the driver to the shared process.