Using Devices And Printers

Once a printer is installed, you can begin configuring and using it with the Devices And Printers user interface. Devices And Printers is a new feature in Windows 7 that provides users with a single, central location where they can install and manage all of the devices connected to their computer.

Selecting a printer in Devices And Printers causes additional toolbar buttons to appear on the Devices And Printers toolbar. These toolbars, along with the context menu that appears when you right-click the printer, let you perform a number of client-side management tasks for the selected printer, including:

• See What's Printing Opens the print queue for the selected printer and displays documents currently being printed and pending print jobs.
• Print Server Properties Lets you configure settings on the print server if you have permissions to do so.
• Set As Default Printer Sets the printer as the default printer for the user's computer. (Note that some client applications can maintain their own default printer setting that overrides the one set here.)
• Printing Preferences Allows the user to select page layout and paper/quality options for the printer.
• Printer Properties Lets the user configure different properties of the printer.
• Troubleshoot Lets the user start the Printer Troubleshooter to identify and resolve any issues when printing to the printer.
• Remove Device Removes the printer from the user's computer.

Additional toolbar buttons or context menu options might be available depending on the type of printer installed. In addition, if the computer running Windows 7 is a laptop computer and connects to more than one network, the user can use the new Location-Aware Printing feature of Windows 7 to assign a different default printer to each connected network. For more information about this new feature, see the next section titled "Using Location-Aware Printing." Devices And Printers also integrates with Device Stage, a new feature of Windows 7 that makes it easier for users to connect, recognize, and use their devices. When a printer supports Device Stage, you can simply double-click the printer's icon in Devices And Printers to display the Device Stage user interface for the printer, which is designed to make the printer easier to manage and use.

Note Local administrator credentials for the computer are required to share a printer displayed in Devices And Printers. These credentials are required so that the end user can respond to the UAC prompt that appears when this action is selected. End users who have local administrator credentials on the computer can also use the Network And Sharing Center to turn on printer sharing and automatically share installed printers for other network users to use.