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Intelligent printer installation

1. 20 38 The method of claim 34 where said categories are nonexclusive and include those printers that have not been previously discovered by said installation took those print ers that have not been previously configured by said instal lation tool and all discovered devices 39 The method of claim 38 including the step of receiving an intuitive location description for each of said selected one or more printers and associating said location description with said printer on said computer or network of computers 40 The method of claim 34 where said computer operates on a Windows 9x operating system 41 The method of claim 34 where said computer operates on a Windows 2000 operating system 42 The method of claim 34 where said computer operates on a Windows XP operating system 43 The method of claim 34 where said installation tool is capable of installing and configuring a printer on any one of a plurality of operating systems 44 The method of claim 43 wherein said plurality of operating systems include Windows 9x Windows NT 4 0 Windows 2000 and Windows XP
2. If the printer is not started using the new values the installation tool may reset 220 the printer and verify the printer on resetting starts using the new values Once the printer has been verified to use the new param eters the installation tool may creates a new LPR port and add registry entries install the Printer driver on to the newly created port and prompt the user to print a test page send the test printer data to the printer The user may then be presented with a last install dialog 222 and the installation tool will then terminate Referring to FIG 24 if the user selected an automatic configuration and the host computer operates on any of a Win NT 4 0 a Win 2k or a Win XP operating system the user need not select any installation directory or program folders Instead the user may be immediately presented with a dialog 224 following a search is performed to identify the available printers that can be installed and present a list of such computers to the user The printer installation tool may use any appropriate protocol for this search such as Simple Network Management Protocol SNMP or Common Man agement Information Protocol CMIP While the search is proceeding a running count of detected available printers may be displayed to the user Some embodiments of the disclosed installation tool may allow the user to terminate the search at any time If the user stops the search while it is proceeding the user may still be a
3. Once the user has indicated that he or she has finished reading the documentation the user may once again be presented with the introductory screen and given the option of whether continuing with the installation or termi nating the installation If the user elects to continue with the installation the installation tool may identify 160 the operating system of the host computer If the host computer is operating on a Windows 95 operating system the installation tool may check 162 whether Winsock 2 0 is installed in the windows directory If Winsock 2 0 is not installed then the installation tool may terminate 164 after preferably indicating to the user 20 25 30 35 40 45 50 55 60 65 10 that installation cannot proceed because of the missing file If Winsock 2 0 is available in a Windows 95 operating system the installation tool may proceed and display and Installer Welcome Dialog 170 Similarly if the host computer is operating on a Win NT 4 0 Windows 2k or Windows XP operating system the installation tool may check 166 whether administrative rights are needed to install a printer and 1f so determine whether the user has such administrative rights If not the installation tool may terminate 168 else proceed and display the installer welcome dialog 170 The installer welcome dialog 170 may be presented in a user interface such as that shown in FIG 3 Preferably the installer welcome dialog 170 warn
4. the person installing the printer must have detailed knowledge of the printer the computer network and the printing environment provided by the operating system For example when installing a printer within a Windows network environment many existing systems of installing the printer use vendor provided utilities to configure the printer while Microsoft provided utilities configure the cli ent computer and or the server With respect to printer configuration many vendor provided utilities may require that the Printer IP address be specified along with the Printer Gateway and if DNS is supported in the network environ ment the Printer DNS name With respect to server configuration Microsoft Windows allows the printer to be configured in one of two configu rations In the first configuration the printer may be con nected for network or queue based printing through a server accessible through one or more remote computers such as a client Each remote computer sends all print data to the server and receives status information from the server The remote computer never communicates directly with the device and is unaware of where or how the printer is connected to the server The server is configured to share the printer and performs all data spooling for the printer Microsoft provides software in all versions of Windows to configure both the remote computer and the server for network printing During the configuration process the r
5. 184 or a Win NT 4 0 2k XP advanced configuration 186 Referring to FIG 22 if the user selected an automatic configuration and the host computer operates on a Win 9x operating system the user may be presented with a dialog 188 in which the user can select an installation directory The dialog 188 may be presented in a user interface like that shown in FIG 6 Some embodiments of the disclosed installation tool will have default directory indicated within the user interface so that the user only needs to hit the enter key to proceed or may alternately override the default selection and either choose another existing directory or create a new directory Once an installation directory has been selected or cre ated the user may be presented with a dialog 190 in which the user can select a program folder for the installation tool The dialog 190 may be presented in a user interface like that shown in FIG 7 Some embodiments of the disclosed installation tool will have default program folder indicated within the user interface so that the user only needs to hit the enter key to proceed or may alternately override the default selection and either choose another existing program folder or create a program folder Once a program folder has been created the installation tool may perform a search to identify 192 the available printers that can be installed and present a list of such computers to the user The printer installation tool may use an
6. 7 CHECK se a7 CHECK lt OPERATING po lt OPERATING gt gt eS SYSTEM z lt SYSTEM 2 Y Win NT 4 0 2k XP WIN 9X WI NNT WNG WIN NT ADVANCED ADVANCED AUTOMATIC AUTOMATIC CONFIGURATION CONFIGURATION CONFIGURATION CONFIGURATION FIG 21B U S Patent Apr 1 2008 Wii 9X i Automatic Configuration SELECT INSTALLATION 188 DIRECTORY DIALOG SELECT PROGRAM 190 FOLDER DIALOG SEARCHING PRINTERS 192 AND SELECT A PRINTER DIALOG AND USER _ SELECTS A PRINTER 194 EIS oe rae FIRST TIME No ae INSTALLATION gt CONFIGURE THE PRINTER DIALOG NAME THE WINDOWS PRINTER DIALOG DRIVER LOCATION RESET THE DEVICE IF NEEDED LAST INSTALL DIALOG FIG 22 Sheet 13 of 14 US 7 353 373 B2 7 Win 9X Advanced Configuration I SELECT INSTALLATION 204 DIRECTORY DIALOG SELECT PROGRAM 206 __ FOLDER DIALOG SEARCHING PRINTERS 208 AND SELECT A PRINTER DIALOG AND USER _ SELECTS A PRINTER _ 7ISSNMP No lt COMMUNITY STRING gt Z DEFAULT ENTER THE SNMP COMMUNITY STRING ADVANCED PRINTER CONFIGURATION DIALOG _ CONFIGURE THE 216 PRINTER DIALOG NAME THE WINDOWS 218 PRINTER DIALOG _ SELECT PRINT TYPE DRIVER LOCATION RESET THE DEVICE IF NEEDED U S Patent Apr 1 2008 WInNT 4 0 2K XP Aut
7. McClung amp Stenzel G06F 15 177 2006 01 52 U S Ch 2 713 1 709 223 709 224 57 ABSTRACT 709 225 709 226 58 Field of Classification Search 713 1 An improved system for installing a printer on a computer 713 2 709 223 226 or a network of computers The disclosed system is capable See application file for complete search history of installing and configuring a printer on a computer and a network to which the computer is connected The disclosed 56 References Cited U S PATENT DOCUMENTS 5 129 639 A 7 1992 DeHority 5 481 742 A 1 1996 Worley et al 5 768 583 A 6 1998 Orzol et al 5 852 744 A 12 1998 Agatone et al 710 17 5 960 167 A 9 1999 Roberts et al 6 076 106 A 6 2000 Hamner et al 709 223 system allows a user to specify an arbitrary and intuitive alphanumeric name for the printer so that it may be easily identified among many printers when it is used The dis closed system allows a user to specify a descriptive location of the printer so that it may be easily located among many printers after it prints a print job 44 Claims 14 Drawing Sheets Auto Run Splash Screen R U S Patent Apr 1 2008 Sheet 1 of 14 US 7 353 373 B2 Auto Run Splash Screen R Installation Termination To execute the setup program Winsock 2 0 or later is needed After installing Winsock 2 0 or later run the setup program Winsock 2 0 or later is avail
8. associ ated with the disclosed printer installation tool or beginning the installation process The user may exit the program by selecting the Exit button 12 after which the installation tool will terminate operation The user may choose to view any associated documentation by selecting the Read Docu mentation button 14 Associated documentation may include a user s manual a networking tutorial and or an installation tutorial presents the installation procedure to the user and suggests responses to any foreseen problems that may occur during the installation process Some embodiments of the disclosed printer installation tool may require the presence of a Winsock 2 0 file to install a printer on a computer that operates in a Windows 95 US 7 353 373 B2 5 environment If so upon a user s selection of the Install Software button 16 the printer installation tool may check whether the operating system on the client computer is Windows 95 and if so check to see whether Winsock 2 0 is installed in the Windows directory of the client computer If it is not the Installation Termination screen 19 of FIG 2 may be displayed and operation of the installation tool terminated after the user clicks the OK button or the exit window button 20 Furthermore some embodiments of the printer installa tion tool may require that the user have administrative rights to install a printer as is common within Window
9. been installed with the flag being unset as default or vice versa In this manner the instal lation tool may guery the printer for the flag The flag may be reset in any suitable manner The filtering criteria may be achieved by processing installation flag values retrieved from the client computer and or server through SNMP operation and a file containing a list of previously discovered devices The Installation Flag value will give the information on whether the printer is installed or not configured at all in the network Optionally the location of the printer may be displayed when the focus of the mouse is on the row of the printer At this point the user has the option of choosing an advanced configuration or an automatic configuration The advanced configuration option will be discussed first Advanced Configuration If the User opted for Let me configure my Network Setting 42 in the Installer select dialog box 38 FIG 5 upon selecting the next button 76 the disclosed printer installation tool will check to see whether the SNMP Com muntty string of the selected device is the default value If the SNMP community string is not the default value see box 238 of FIG 25 the user will be presented with the dialog window so that he can enter the correct string for the selected device in the window 80 and press the enter button 82 or return to the Select Printer dialog by pressing the button 84 as i
10. follow 10 20 25 30 35 40 45 50 55 60 65 16 The invention claimed is 1 A printer installation tool for installing and configuring a printer on a computer or a network of computers instal lation of said printer including 1 configuring said printer by associating a unigue name and unigue location of said printer relative to other printers installed on said network and ii associating a driver with said printer said installa tion tool comprising a a search tool for discovering uninstalled printers available for installation on said computer or network of computers b a display for displaying to a user a list of available uninstalled printers for installation said display allow ing said user to select one or more said uninstalled printers to be installed c a confieuration tool for configuring the selected said one or more printers said configuration tool being capable of receiving a unique arbitrary user selected alphanumeric name for each one of the selected said one or more printers and associating said name with said printer on said computer or network of computers d a filter for categorizing the discovered printers avail able for installation into a plurality of categories and wherein at least two of said plurality of categories are hierarchically arranged with respect to each other and where said display is capable of selectively displaying selected ones of said categories of pri
11. for each one of the selected said one or more printers d associating said name with said printer on said com puter or network of computers e filtering the discovered printers available for installa tion into hierarchically arranged categories and the step of displaying selectively displays one of said categories of printers while not displaying ones of categories of printers not selected and f associating a printer driver with each of the selected said one or more printers to be installed in response to the user selecting said one or more printers from a displayed said filtered list 13 The method of claim 12 where said method simulta neously configures a plurality of printers selected by said user 14 The method of claim 12 where said selected one or more printers is connected to a computer connected to a network server and said method configures said selected one or more printers said computer and said server 15 The method of claim 12 where said method is capable of automatically configuring said selected one or more printers 16 The method of claim 12 where said categories are nonexclusive and include those printers that have not been previously discovered by said installation tool those printers that have not been previously configured by said installation tool and all discovered devices 17 The method of claim 16 including the step of receiving an intuitive location description for each of said selected one o
12. or initiate a help dialog window by selecting the Help button 50 Selection of the help button 50 may present a help dialog window not shown explaining the consequences of electing to configure the printer manually along with a list of parameters which 0 an 5 20 25 40 45 50 55 60 65 6 will need to be entered manually The help dialog window may also suggest that novice users elect to let the installation Program proceed with an automatic installation Selection of the cancel button 48 may either terminate operation of the printer installation tool or present the user with an Ezit setup window with the same functionality as the exit setup win dow 32 of FIG 4 Unless otherwise indicated any back cancel or help buttons in any of the dialog windows discussed in this disclosure are functionally equivalent to the respective buttons 46 48 and 50 discussed in this para graph Referring to FIG 6 if the client computer is running in a Windows 95 environment e g an operating system without a port monitor the selection of the desired installation option will cause the Select Installation Directory window 52 to appear from which the user may either select a displayed default directory or input a new directory for an installation folder and proceed to a select program folder window 56 as shown in FIG 7 The select program folder window 56 permits the user to input a desire
13. receiving a print job What is needed then is a printer installation tool that is targeted towards non technical users uses non technical terms supports configuration of the client computer as a server and identifies the installed computer by an identifier that allows a user to intuitively identify that particular printer even where multiple printers are accessible through a network BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS FIG 1 is an exemplary display that may initiate any one of the disclosed printer installation tools FIG 2 is an exemplary Installation Termination display that may appear in response to the selection of the Install Software in the splash screen of FIG 1 where the disclosed installation tool does not detect Winsock 2 0 on a client computer with a Windows 95 operating system FIG 3 is an exemplary Installer Welcome screen that may appear in response to the selection of the Install Software in the splash screen of FIG 1 where the disclosed installation tool either detects Winsock 2 0 on a client computer with a Windows 95 operating system or detects that the client computer uses an operating system other than Windows 95 FIG 4 is an exemplary Exit Setup screen that may appear in response to the selection of the No button in the Screen of FIG 3 FIG 5 is an exemplary Installer Select screen that may appear in response to the selection of the Yes button in the screen
14. United States Patent US007353373B2 12 10 Patent No US 7 353 373 B2 Olbricht 45 Date of Patent Apr 1 2008 54 INTELLIGENT PRINTER INSTALLATION 6 301 012 B1 102001 White et al 6 463 426 B1 10 2002 Lipson etal 707 3 75 Inventor Eric Olbricht Vancouver WA US 6 789 111 B1 9 2004 Brockway et al 709 222 6 829 059 B1 12 2004 Kimura 358 1 15 73 Assignee Sharp Laboratories of America Inc 6 920 506 B2 7 2005 Barnard et al 709 245 Camas WA US 2001 0046065 Al 11 2001 Furukawa et al 358 115 2002 0049837 Al 4 2002 Kato 709 223 ka I 2002 0069239 Al 6 2002 Katada et al 709 202 C Notice Subject to anyidiselamer the teem er this 2002 0083431 A1 6 2002 Machida vee 717 174 patent is extended or adjusted under 35 2002 0196451 Al 12 2002 Schlonski et al 358 1 1 U S C 154 b by 384 days 2003 0005100 A1 1 2003 Barnard et al 709 223 2003 0174360 Al 9 2003 Ohshima 358 1 15 21 Appl No 10 404 955 2004 0019671 A1 1 2004 Metz 709 223 2004 0061909 Al 4 2004 Ferlitsch et al 358 474 22 Filed Mar 31 2003 2004 0190052 Al 9 2004 Sando 358 1 15 65 Prior Publication Data cited by examiner US 2004 0193745 A1 Sep 30 2004 Primary Examiner A Elamin 74 Attorney Agent or Firm Chernoff Vilhauer 51 Int Cl
15. able from Microsoft _ Installation will terminate U S Patent Apr 1 2008 Sheet 2 of 14 US 7 353 373 B2 Installer Welcome Welcome to the Sharp Printer installer Please make sure that all other applications are closed and the l piner is turned on and connected to the network efore continuing Please read the following License Agreement Press page down key to see the rest of the License gt agreement AA AA MA Software License Agreement Copyright c E Sharp Corporation All rights reserved NOTICE TO USER 24 THIS ISA CONTRACT bY INSTALLIN ALL THE TERMS AND CONDITIONS O 22 P Setup is not com lete If you quit the setup program now the program will not De installed You may run the setup program _ at a later time to complete the installation To continue installing click Resume R sume U S Patent Apr 1 2008 Sheet 3 of 14 US 7 353 373 B2 installer Select Automatically configure my network settings Recommended for non technical users Use this option for most installations This option will install the MFP device for printing using the default network settings of your environment Let me configure my network settings Recommended for network administrators Use _ _ this option when yoy would like to perform custom settings of the MFP device or would like to use special network settings Ya l Select Installation Directory Setup w
16. ata to the printer The user may then be presented with a last install dialog 234 and the installation tool will then terminate Referring to FIG 25 if the user selected an advanced configuration and the host computer operates on any of a Win NT 4 0 a Win 2k or a Win XP operating system the user may be immediately presented with a dialog 236 in which the user is presented with a list of available printers for configuration after the installation tool has completed a search The printer installation tool may use any appropriate protocol for this search such as Simple Network Manage ment Protocol SNMP or Common Management Informa tion Protocol CMIP While the search is proceeding a running count of detected available printers may be dis played to the user Some embodiments of the disclosed installation tool may allow the user to terminate the search at any time If the user stops the search while it is proceed ing the user may still be allowed to select from the list already compiled Once the user selects an available printer from the pre sented list the installation tool performs a check 238 to see whether the SNMP Community string of the selected device is the default value If the SNMP community string is not the default value the user will be presented with a dialog 240 so that the user can enter the correct string for the selected device or return to the dialog 236 If the SNMP community string is incorrect the user will agai
17. cation description with said printer on said computer or network of computers 7 The printer installation tool of claim 1 where said computer operates on a Windows NT 4 0 operating system 8 The printer installation tool of claim 1 where said computer operates on a Windows 2000 operating system 9 The printer installation tool of claim 1 where said computer operated on a Windows XP operating system 10 The printer installation tool of claim 1 where said installation tool is capable of installing and configuring a printer on any one of a plurality of operating systems US 7 353 373 B2 17 11 The printer installation tool of claim 10 where said plurality of operating systems include Windows 9x Win dows NT 4 0 Windows 2000 and Windows XP 12 A method for installing and confieuring a printer on a computer or a network of computers installation of said printer including i configuring said printer by associating a unique name and unique location of said printer relative to other printers installed on said network and ii associating a driver with said printer said method comprising a searching for uninstalled printers available for instal lation on said computer or network of computers b displaying to a user a list of available said uninstalled printers for installation where said user may select one or more said uninstalled printers to be installed c receiving a unique arbitrary user selected alphanu meric name
18. configurable attribute values to the installed printer Second it may check whether the installed printer started using those values Finally the disclosed printer installation tool may configure the client computer so that it can print to the printer The disclosed printer installation tool starts configuring the print server with user configured new values the Copy files and Configure printer window 122 may tell the user to Please wait while configuring the device above a progress bar The message Please wait while configuring the device should preferably be displayed for approximately ten sec onds beyond the actual download time or until the printer installation tool has detected that the client computer has started using the new parameters whichever is shorter After pushing the configurable values to the printer the disclosed printer installation tool checks whether the printer is using the configured values If it finds that the device is not using the currently configured values it may shows the reset printer window 124 see FIG 19 This dialog should be displayed only as long as the device still contains its old original parameters For example if the address has been changed and the printer is still answering pings on its US 7 353 373 B2 9 old address If the device has started using the new param eters this dialog can be skipped After the reset if the device is not responding to any queries anoth
19. d program folder in the window 57 by either typing it in manually or selecting one of the existing folders detected by the printer installation tool and displayed in the window 58 Selection of the Next button 60 will cause the Select Printer window 62 to appear Furthermore if the client computer is operating within a Windows NT 4 0 a Windows 2000 or a Windows XP environment selection of the Next button 44 in the Installer Select window 38 FIG 5 leads to the Select Printer window 62 FIG 8 Initially the Select Printer dialog window may be overlaid with a Searching window 64 that indicates to the user that the disclosed printer installation tool is detecting available printers for installation The printer installation tool may use any appropriate protocol for this search such as Simple Network Management Protocol SNMP or Com mon Management Information Protocol CMIP While the search is proceeding a running count of detected available printers may be displayed in the box 66 and the user may be allowed to terminate the search by selecting the Stop button 68 Before displaying the Select Printer dialog SLP files slp dll will be copied to the temporary directory The select printer dialog shows a list of discovered devices Referring to FIG 9 once the search has been completed or the user stops the process the Searching window 64 will disappear and the user wil
20. e printer The default will be the name of the printer in the installed machine Using this window a user preferably has the option of giving the printer an intuitive name by which the user may subse quently recognize that particular printer when sending it a print job so that the user can locate the printer and easily retrieve the completed print job The dialog 230 may also preferably allow the user to select the printer as the default windows computer for local print jobs Once the user has configured and named the selected printer the installation tool may request the driver location as illustrated in FIG 16 and the disclosed installation tool may push the configuration parameters back to the host computer server using SNMP protocols and updating the printer s DNS name This step may not be necessary if no values have changed i e the default values were selected If however any value has been changed the installation tool will preferably check whether the printer started using the new values pushed to the printer If the printer is not started using the new values the installation tool may reset 232 the printer and verify the printer on resetting starts using the new values Once the printer has been verified to use the new param eters the installation tool may creates a new LPR port and add registry entries install the Printer driver on to the newly created port and prompt the user to print a test page send the test printer d
21. emote computer must receive information as to the Win dows printer name the Windows print driver and the print queue location while the printing device must receive infor mation as to the printer IP address the printer netmask the printer gateway and the printer DNS name In addition the server must receive information as to the printer IP address the printer DNS name the Windows printer name the Windows print driver any alternate OS print drivers and the print queue location In an alternate configuration the printer may be config ured for remote printing a special class of local printing where the printer is connected through a network A com puter performs its own data spooling and communicates directly with the printer for status and data output If more than one computer is connected to the printer for remote printing the printer will prioritize print job requests The software component used to communicate directly with the device is called a port monitor Port monitors are specific to the device that they communicate with and are usually supplied by the device manufacturer When configuring a printer for remote printing the computer must receive information as to the printer IP address the printer DNS name the Windows printer name and the Windows print driver If the computer acts as a server for one or more other remote computers the computer must also receive informa tion as to any alternate OS print drivers and the pr
22. er as the default printer ee Q O Yes l No 120 ue FIG 17 i Files and Config ure Printer Configure Printer U S Patent Apr 1 2008 Sheet 10 of 14 US 7 353 373 B2 Reset Printer Dialog _ Please reset the device by switching off the power waiting 10 seconds and then turning the power back on 124 Name the Windows Printer_ After your printer is installed Windows can print a test page so you can confirm that the printer is set up properly s aan Would you like to print a test page gt Yes Recommended ONo K s ne FIG 20 U S Patent Apr 1 2008 Sheet 11 of 14 US 7 353 373 B2 150 DISPLAY AUTO RUN SPLASH SCREEN gt Z 152 154 Read Documentation DISPLAY DOCUMENT EXITSETUP USER gt OPTION ene Ba Software 156 160 7 CHECK aN aa OPERATING gt 5s SYSTEM er Win NT 4 0 2k XP ie ae ae g7 CHECK CHECK lt No WINSOCK 2 0 7 C AVAILABILITY gt lt ADMINISTRATIVE ae RIGHTS en No INSTALLATION TERMINATION INSTALLATION TERMINATION DISPLAY INSTALLER WELCOME DIALOG ye AI lt ACCEPT w lt LICENSE gt TRACE MBI zA Ya ae FIG 21A EXIT SETUP U S Patent Apr 1 2008 Sheet 12 of 14 US 7 353 373 B2 FROM FIG 21A DISPLAY INSTALLER SELECT DIALOG Advanced Automatic pos 178 178
23. er or not the printer is to be shared the disclosed installation tool may push the configu ration parameters back to the host computer server using SNMP protocols and updating the printer s DNS name This step may not be necessary if no values have changed i e the default values were selected If however any value has been changed the installation tool will preferably check whether the printer started using the new values pushed to the printer If the printer is not started using the new values the installation tool may reset 250 the printer and verify the printer on resetting starts using the new values Once the printer has been verified to use the new param eters the installation tool may creates a new LPR port and add registry entries install the Printer driver on to the newly created port and prompt the user to print a test page send the test printer data to the printer The user may then be presented with a last install dialog 252 and the installation tool will then terminate All references disclosed herein are incorporated by ref erence The terms and expressions that have been employed in the foregoing specification are used therein as terms of descrip tion and not of limitation and there is no intention in the use of such terms and expressions of excluding equivalents of the features shown and described or portions thereof it being recognized that the scope of the invention is defined and limited only the claims that
24. er window not shown may display the text Waiting for the device to initialize Please make sure that the power is on in the Copy files and configure printer This message should be shown only as long as the device is not responding to any queries on any address If the device has started using the new parameters this dialog can be skipped If the device started responding the next message dis plays is the Waiting for the device to initialize in the copy files and configure printer dialog This should be shown only as long as the device is responding but has not set all parameters For example the printer is responding to Pings but the new Name is not set If the device has started using the new parameters this dialog can be skipped Once the installed printer configuration and validation is done the disclosed printer installation tool may start con figuring the client computer First it copies the port monitor Then it installs and configures the port monitor while optionally displaying the text Configuring the port moni tor Then the tool installs the printer driver while optionally displaying the text Installing the printer driver in the copy file and configure the printer 122 On completing host and printer configuration the dis closed printer installation tool displays the Last Install window 126 See FIG 20 The foregoing installation tool may be used with any computer operating system
25. erver This step may be skipped if the printer has previously been installed This permits subse quent installations for the user to merely select next to install the printer properly Once the printer has been configured by the user or alternately if the printer had been previously configured the user may be presented with a dialog 198 to name the printer The dialog 198 may be presented in a user interface similar to that shown in FIG 17 The dialog 198 allows the user to give a Windows name of the printer The default will be the name of the printer in the installed machine Using this window a user preferably has the option of giving the printer an intuitive name by which the user may subse quently recognize that particular printer when sending it a print job so that the user can locate the printer and easily retrieve the completed print job The dialog 198 may also preferably allow the user to select the printer as the default windows computer for local print jobs Once the user has configured and named the selected printer the installation tool may request the driver location as illustrated in FIG 16 and then the disclosed installation tool may push the configuration parameters back to the host computer server using SNMP protocols and updating the printer s DNS name This step may not be necessary if no values have changed i e the default values were selected If however any value has been changed the installation tool will pre
26. ferably check whether the printer started using the new values pushed to the printer If the printer is not started using the new values the installation tool may reset 200 the printer and verify the printer on resetting starts using the new values Once the printer has been verified to use the new param eters the installation tool may create a new LPR port and add registry entries install the Printer driver on to the newly created port and prompt the user to print a test page send the test printer data to the printer The user may then be presented with a last install dialog 202 and the installation tool will then terminate Referring to FIG 23 if the user selected an advanced configuration and the host computer operates on a Win 9x operating system the user may be presented with a dialog 204 in which the user can select an installation directory The dialog 204 may be presented in a user interface like that shown in FIG 6 Some embodiments of the disclosed 20 25 30 35 40 45 50 55 60 65 12 installation tool will have default directory indicated within the user interface so that the user only needs to hit the enter key to proceed or may alternately override the default selection and either choose another existing directory or create a new directory Once an installation directory has been selected or cre ated the user may be presented with a dialog 206 in which the user can select a program folder fo
27. ill install Sharp printer software in the following folder To install to a different folder click Browse and select another folder Browse You can choose not to install Sharp printer foran drivers by clicking Cancel to exit setup installation directory Browse Destination Directory c program files sharp sharp print ss J Cea Nee 52 FIG 6 U S Patent Apr 1 2008 Sheet 4 of 14 US 7 353 373 B2 Select Program Folder Setup will add rogram folder listed below You may type a new folder name or select one from the existing older list Click Next to continue Program Folder Sharp Print Existing Folder Startup Accessories I Program Files Model dialog during discovery Please wait while we search for printers on your network This may take a few minutes Nid Number of printers found f Activity Indicator U S Patent Apr 1 2008 Sheet 5 of 14 US 7 353 373 B2 Select Printer Select a device to install Type JP Address O SHA00A123 AL 1023 172 29 226 68 _ BillsPrinter _AR 223 10 122 122 228 SharpAL1023 AL 1023 10 o A AR 1023 10 O SHA00A123 AL 1023 17 IF the printer you would like to install is not listed you should first make sure the printer is turned on and List device as defined by the display filter connected to the network Then click Refresh to search agai
28. int queue location When installing and configuring a new printer the person installing the printer may not know or have ready access to the specific configuration parameters necessary to configure 20 25 30 35 40 45 50 55 60 65 2 the printer the computer and the server if any If a printer is connected to a server for use by one or more remote computers an additional problem often occurs because the remote computer identifies the printer by either the printer s IP address or DNS name or some other alphanumeric string that has little meaning to the user Thus if more than one printer is connected to the server the user may not be able to easily identify which printer has received and printed the desired print job Some existing systems for printer configuration have attempted to address these problems One such existing system for example configures the printer and the computer from the same installation tool using a novice friendly wizard that presents simple questions to the person installing the printer using non technical terms This installation tool though does not support server usage of the client computer If the client computer is to be used as a server the person installing the printer must therefore input all needed param eters In addition this system still identifies the printer using only a non intuitive alphanumeric string making it difficult for a user to identify which computer is
29. izes said discovered printers into the nonexclu sive categories of those printers that have not been previ ously discovered by said installation tool those printers that have not been previously configured by said installation tool and all discovered devices 28 The printer installation tool of claim 23 where said configuration tool is capable of receiving an intuitive loca tion description for each of said selected one or more printers and associating said location description with said printer on said computer or network of computers 29 The printer installation tool of claim 23 where said computer operates on a Windows NT 4 0 operating system 30 The printer installation tool of claim 1 where said computer operates on a Windows 2000 operating system 31 The printer installation tool of claim 23 where said computer operated on a Windows XP operating system 32 The printer installation tool of claim 23 where said installation tool is capable of installing and configuring a printer on any one of a plurality of operating systems 33 The printer installation tool of claim 32 where said plurality of operating systems include Windows 9x Win dows NT 4 0 Windows 2000 and Windows XP 34 A method for installing and configuring a printer on a computer or a network of computers installation of said printer including i confieuring said printer by associating a unique name and unique location of said printer relative to other printers i
30. l be presented with a list of printers within the window 70 The disclosed printer instal lation tool may provide for a filtering tool that filters the list of printers shown in the window 70 For example the filtering tool may first show only new devices i e devices that were not previously discovered in an earlier iteration of the disclosed printer installation tool or if this new list is empty then only uninstalled devices i e those devices that have not been previously configured or if the uninstalled list is empty then all discovered devices This simplifies the installation of new printers on a network by showing the new printers without showing all the previously installed printers or less than all The user may also elect to show all available printers rather than a presented filtered list by selecting the button 72 If all devices are being shown then the Show all Printers button 72 will be gray Further the disclosed printer installation tool may include a refresh button 74 to be selected if a desired printer is not shown and a further search is desired after connections are checked etc In some embodiments of the disclosed printer installation tool the user can select more than one device to perform a multi device installation US 7 353 373 B2 7 The printer device itself may include a flag memory location that may be set by the installation tool to indicate that the printer has now
31. llowed to select from the list already compiled Once the user selects an available printer from the pre sented list in the dialog 224 the installation tool performs a check 226 to see whether the selected printer is being installed for the first time If so the user may be presented with a dialog 228 to configure the printer The dialog 228 may be presented in a user interface like that shown in FIG 15 In the dialog 228 the user is allowed to name the device and optionally provide a location description for the printer A default name may be initially displayed by the dialog 228 The default name that is displayed should be the device name retrieved from the printer and is preferably limited to 15 characters and follows the DNS naming convention no spaces no special characters The user can change this name so long as it follows the aforementioned length limitations This name and location string is written back to the printer using SNMP or CMIP and the printer will register this name with the WINS DNS server This step may be skipped if the printer has previously been installed Once the printer has been configured by the user or alternately if the printer had been previously configured the user may be presented with a dialog 230 to name the printer an 0 40 45 50 55 14 The dialog 230 may be presented in a user interface similar to that shown in FIG 17 The dialog 230 allows the user to give a Windows name of th
32. llustrated in FIG 10 If the SNMP community string is incorrect the user will again be prompted to enter the correct SNMP Community string The Advanced Printer Configuration window 98 see FIG 12 allows the entry of an IP address for the printer a subnet mask identifier and a default gateway by entries into the appropriate windows 99 100 and 101 These entries may be made automatically by selecting the box 102 via DHCP or the values may be specified manually after select ing the box 103 Specifying either an invalid address or an address already being used and selecting the next button 104 will result in the Error Message Windows 106 and 107 respectively where the user will be prompted to enter correct values see FIGS 13 and 14 In either automatic or advanced configuration the Con figure the Printer window 108 see FIG 15 will appear in response to the selection of the next button 104 see FIG 12 advanced configuration or the next button 76 see FIG 98 automatic configuration in the case that it is a first time installation see FIG 24 The window 108 allows the user to name the device and optionally provide a location description in the appropriate windows 109 and 110 The description 110 may subsequently be displayed together with the name of the device such as with a mouse or other window This provides additional descriptive information to a subsequent installer of the same printer A default
33. n response to the selection of the Next button in the screen of FIG 12 and if the printer installation tool does not recognize the address provided in response to the screen of FIG 12 FIG 14 is an exemplary screen that may appear in response to the selection of the Next button in the screen of FIG 12 and if the address provided in response to the screen of FIG 12 is already in use FIG 15 is an exemplary screen that may appear in response to the selection of the Next button in either the screen of FIG 9 where the user selected the Automatically configure my network settings button in the screen of FIG 5 or in response to the selection of the Next button in the screen of FIG 12 where the printer installation tool recog nize the address provided in response to the screen of FIG 12 and if that address is not used by another device FIG 16 is an exemplary screen that may appear in response to the selection of the Next button in the screen of FIG 15 FIG 17 is an exemplary screen that may appear in response to the selection of the OK button in the screen of FIG 16 FIG 18 is an exemplary screen that may appear in response to the selection of the Install button in the screen of FIG 17 FIG 19 is an exemplary Printer Reset Screen FIG 20 is an exemplary Last Install screen that may appear when the printer installation tool has installed the printer selected in the sc
34. n be prompted to enter the correct SNMP Community string Once the disclosed installation tool has verified that the correct SNMP community string has been entered the user may be presented with an advanced printer configuration dialog 242 The dialog 242 allows the entry of an IP address for the printer a subnet mask identifier and a default gateway These entries may be made automatically via DHCP or the values may be specified manually Specifying either an invalid address or an address already being used will preferably result in an error message where the user will be prompted to enter correct values Otherwise a printer configuration dialog 244 will appear US 7 353 373 B2 15 The dialog 244 allows the user to name the device and optionally provide a location description A default name may be initially displayed in the dialog 244 The default name that is displayed should be the device name retrieved from the printer and is preferably limited to 15 characters and follows the DNS naming convention no spaces no special characters The user can change this name so long as it follows the aforementioned length limitations This name and location string is written back to the printer using SNMP or CMIP and the printer will register this name with the WINS DNS server Once the printer has been configured the user may be presented with a dialog 246 in which the printer may be named by the user The dialog 246 may be presented in a use
35. n by selecting the Resume button 36 after which the user is once again prompted to either accept or decline the license agreement in the Installer Welcome screen 22 In one preferred embodiment of the disclosed printer installation tool the UI scope is focused on the No button 28 of the Installer Welcome screen 22 so that a user cannot inadvertently accept the license agreement by carelessly clicking the enter button on the user s keypad Rather the license agreement can only be accepted and the installation program can be completed only upon the conscious selec tion of the Yes button 26 Other embodiments Though may focus the UI scope on the No button 28 Selection of the Yes button 26 which accepts the License agreement may lead to the Installer Select screen 38 shown in FIG 5 which gives a user the option of having the disclosed printer installation tool automatically config ure a desired printer or let the user configure the printer This selection may be made by checking the desired one of the boxes 40 or 42 and subsequently selecting the Next button 44 Selection of the box 40 provides for an easy installation and selection of the box 42 provides for an advanced printer setting configuration for advanced users Alternatively the user may choose to go back to the previous screen by selecting the Back button 46 cancel installation by selecting the Cancel button 50
36. n or click Show all Printers to expand 7 _ the search j l f N Gray unless a device is selected No filtering of thelist SNMP Community String Enter the SNMP Community the SNI 80 String for SHAO0A123456 82 78 FIG 10 U S Patent Apr 1 2008 Sheet 6 of 14 US 7 353 373 B2 Share Printer i Indicate whether this printer will be shared with other network users If you chose Shared give this printer a share name e ogo SP Sa Shared f Share Name Select the operating System of all computers that will be printing to this printer Beco f a Windows 95 Windows 2000 Windows XP How is your printer connected _ Connected to a network server f The printer is attached to another networked computer i i O Connected directly to a network The printer is attached directly to a network 92 FIG 11B U S Patent Apr 1 2008 Sheet 7 of 14 US 7 353 373 B2 Advanced Printer Configuration An IP address can be automatically assigned to this printer If your network does not automatically assign YA an IP address ask your network administrator for an address then type it in the space below Obtain an IP address automatically via DHCP O Specify an IP address 1722922668 IP Address 99 Subnet Mask 225 225 248 0 100 Default Gateway 172 29 224_1 2101 IP address subnet mask defaul
37. n tool for configuring the selected said one or more printers said configuration tool being capable of receiving a unique arbitrary user selected alphanumeric name for each one of the selected said one or more printers and associating said name with said printer on said computer or network of computers d a filter for categorizing the discovered printers avail able for installation into a plurality of categories and where said display is capable of selectively displaying selected ones of said categories of printers while not displaying ones of categories of printers not selected and e a driver setup tool for associating a printer driver with each of the selected said one or more printers to be installed in response to the user selecting said one or more printers from a displayed said filtered list 24 The printer installation tool of claim 23 where said configuration tool may simultaneously confieure a plurality of printers selected by said user from said display 25 The printer installation tool of claim 23 where said selected one or more printers is connected to a computer connected to a network server and said confieuration tool configures said selected one or more printers said computer and said server 26 The printer installation tool of claim 23 wherein said configuration tool is capable of automatically configuring said selected one or more printers 27 The printer installation tool of claim 23 where said filter categor
38. name may be initially displayed in the window 109 The default name that is displayed should be the device name retrieved from the printer and is preferably limited to 15 characters and follows the DNS naming convention no spaces no special characters The user can change this name so long as it follows the aforementioned length limitations This name and location string is written back to the printer using SNMP or CMIP and the printer will register this name with the WINS DNS server 20 25 30 35 40 45 50 55 60 65 8 Continued Automatic Advanced Configuration Typically when a user selects the Next button 112 of the Configure the Printer window 112 see FIG 15 the Name the Printer window 118 will appear see FIG 17 The Name the Printer window 118 is similar to the Add Printer Wizard dialog used in the Windows operating sys tem The Name the Windows Printer 118 allows the user to give a Windows name of the printer The default will be the name of the printer in the installed machine Using this window a user has the option of giving the printer an intuitive name by which the user may subsequently recog nize that particular printer when sending it a print job so that the user can locate the printer and easily retrieve the com pleted print job This eliminates difficulty in distinguishing identical printers on a network that all have the same or similar default identificatio
39. ns In the advanced configuration if the printer is shared in the Select Print Type window may be displayed See FIG 11B so that the user has the option by selecting the appropriate box 94 or 95 of installing the printer as a peer to peer i e connected directly to a network or as a network printer i e connected to a network server through another network computer e g a server Selection of the Next button 96 will show the Driver Location window 114 shown in FIG 16 In either the automatic or advanced configuration the Driver location window allows the user to select the appropriate driver to install Normally this is only displayed when the system can not locate the appropriate driver Insert C In the case of advanced configuration for non win 9x if direct printing as a result of FIG 11B is selected a Share Printer window 86 shown in FIG 11A may be displayed by which the user may indicate whether the printer is to be shared or not by selecting the appropriate box 88 or 89 give a share name in the window 90 and select the operating system of all the computers printing to the selected printer from the list shown in the window 91 Clicking the Install button 120 leads to the copy files and configure printer screen 122 of the installation process see FIG 18 When displaying the window 122 the dis closed printer installation tool may do three additional things First it may push the
40. nstalled on said network and ii associating a driver with said printer said method comprising a searching for uninstalled printers available for instal lation on said computer or network of computers US 7 353 373 B2 19 b displaying to a user a list of available said uninstalled printers for installation where said user may select one or more said uninstalled printers to be installed c receiving a unique arbitrary user selected alphanu meric name for each one of the selected said one or more printers d associating said name with said printer on said com puter or network of computers e filtering the discovered printers available for installa tion into categories and the step of displaying selec tively displays one of said categories of printers and f associating a printer driver with each of the selected said one or more printers to be installed in response to the user selecting said one or more printers from a displayed said filtered list 35 The method of claim 34 where said method simulta neously configures a plurality of printers selected by said user 36 The method of claim 34 where said selected one or more printers is connected to a computer connected to a network server and said method configures said selected one or more printers said computer and said server 37 The method of claim 34 where said method is capable of automatically configuring said selected one or more printers 5 20
41. nters while not displaying ones of categories of printers not selected and e a driver setup tool for associating a printer driver with each of the selected said one or more printers to be installed in response to the user selecting said one or more printers from a displayed said filtered list 2 The printer installation tool of claim 1 where said configuration tool may simultaneously confieure a plurality of printers selected by said user from said display 3 The printer installation tool of claim 1 where said selected one or more printers is connected to a computer connected to a network server and said confieuration tool configures said selected one or more printers said computer and said server 4 The printer installation tool of claim 1 wherein said configuration tool is capable of automatically configuring said selected one or more printers 5 The printer installation tool of claim 1 where said search tool is limited to discovering printers and where said filter categorizes discovered said printers into the nonexclu sive categories of those printers that have not been previ ously discovered by said installation tool those printers that have not been previously configured by said installation tool and all discovered devices 6 The printer installation tool of claim 1 where said configuration tool is capable of receiving an intuitive loca tion description for each of said selected one or more printers and associating said lo
42. of FIG 3 FIG 6 is an exemplary Select Installation Directory screen that may appear in response to the selection of the Next button in the screen of FIG 5 FIG 7 is an exemplary Select Program Folder screen that may appear in response to the selection of the Next button in the screen of FIG 6 FIG 8 is an exemplary screen that may appear in response to the selection of the Next button in the screen of FIG 7 and while the printer installation tool searches for printers available to the client computer FIG 9 is an exemplary screen that may appear in response to the selection of the Next button in the screen of FIG 7 and after the printer installation tool has identified the printers available to the client computer FIG 10 is an exemplary screen that may appear in response to the selection of the Next button in the screen US 7 353 373 B2 3 of FIG 9 and where the user selected the Let me configure my network setting option in the screen of FIG 5 FIG NA is an ezemplary screen that may appear in response to the selection of the Enter button in the screen of FIG 10 FIG 11B is an exemplary screen that may appear in response to the selection of the Enter button in the screen of FIG 11A FIG 12 is an exemplary screen that may appear in response to the selection of the Next button in the screen of FIG NA FIG 13 is an exemplary screen that may appear i
43. omatic Configuration SELECT A PRINTER DIALOG AND USER SELECTS A PRINTER 224 we 226 a YA _ FIRST TIME No lt lt INSTALLATION eee as _ A 228 CONFIGURE THE PRINTER NAME THE WINDOWS PRINTER DIALOG DRIVER LOCATION RESET THE DEVICE IF NEEDED LAST INSTALL DIALOG 230 232 234 FIG 24 Sheet 14 of 14 Win NT gt 4 0 2K XP Advanced Configuration SEARCHING PRINTERS AND SELECT A PRINTER DIALOG AND USER SELECTS A PRINTER en 2 238 _ 77IS SNMP COMMUNITY STRING Z DEFAULT A od Yes ADVANCED PRINTER CONFIGURATION DIALOG CONFIGURE THE __ PRINTER DIALOG NAME THE WINDOWS PRINTER DIALOG SELECT PRINT TYPE _ DRIVER LOCATION HARE PRINTER DIALOG RESET THE DEVICE IF NEEDED LAST INSTALL DIALOG ry N A US 7 353 373 B2 236 240 ENTER THE SNMP COMMUNITY STRING 242 244 246 248 250 252 US 7 353 373 B2 1 INTELLIGENT PRINTER INSTALLATION BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates to an improved system for installing a printer on a computer or a network of computers Existing systems for installing a printer on a computer or a network of computers require the completion of several steps to properly configure the printer for use Because each of these steps requires the entry of specific critical configu ration parameters
44. r interface UI screens shown in FIGS 1 21 that guide a user though one embodiment of a disclosed printer installation tool It should be understood that the UI screens depicted in FIGS 1 21 are illustrative only and that other embodiments of the disclosed printer installation tool may present different UI screens to a user The UI screens depicted in FIGS 1 21 are preferably 332x218 Dialog Based Units DBU or 498x354 pixels screen units size Furthermore unless explicitly stated the UI scope will always be focused on the button that will lead the user though the default path of the dialogs so that the user can install the device with a minimum number of hits of the Enter key FIG 1 shows an exemplary splash screen 10 that may appear when a user inserts a CD that contains an executable printer installation tool into a CD ROM drive Preferably the printer installation tool will automatically run upon insertion of the CD ROM however the installation tool should also preferably be executable from a DOS command or by manually selecting the installation tool through the client computer s operating system Alternatively the splash screen 10 may appear after the installation tool is down loaded from the web and the user executes a setup exe file or other executable file that initiates the disclosed printer installation tool The splash screen 10 presents a user with the options of either exiting the program reading documentation
45. r interface similar to that shown in FIG 17 The dialog 246 allows the user to give a Windows name of the printer The default will be the name of the printer in the installed machine Using this window a user preferably has the option of giving the printer an intuitive name by which the user may subse quently recognize that particular printer when sending it a print job so that the user can locate the printer and easily retrieve the completed print job The dialog 246 may also preferably allow the user to select the printer as the default windows computer for local print jobs Once the printer has been configured and named in the dialogs 244 and 246 respectively the installation tool may request the driver location as illustrated in FIG 16 the installation tool may select the print type as illustrated in FIG 11B and the installation tool may present the dialog 248 in which the user may elect to share the printer with other network computers If the printer is to be shared the user should preferably give a share name the operating system of all the computers printing to the selected printer If the printer is shared a dialog not shown may be displayed so that the user has the option of installing the printer as a peer to peer i e connected directly to a network or as a network printer i e connected to a network server through another network computer Once the user has configured and named the selected printer and indicated wheth
46. r more printers and associating said location description with said printer on said computer or network of computers 18 The method of claim 12 where said computer operates on a Windows 9x operating system 19 The method of claim 12 where said computer operates on a Windows 2000 operating system 20 The method of claim 12 where said computer operates on a Windows XP operating system 21 The method of claim 12 where said installation tool is capable of installing and configuring a printer on any one of a plurality of operating systems 22 The method of claim 21 wherein said plurality of operating systems include Windows 9x Windows NT 4 0 Windows 2000 and Windows XP 23 A printer installation tool for installing and configur ing a printer on a computer or a network of computers installation of said printer including i configuring said printer by associating a unique name and unique location of said printer relative to other printers installed on said net work and ii associating a driver with said printer said installation tool comprising 0 35 40 45 50 60 65 18 a a search tool for discovering uninstalled printers available for installation on said computer or network of computers b a display for displaying to a user a list of available uninstalled printers for installation said display allow ing said user to select one or more said uninstalled printers to be installed c a confieuratio
47. r the installation tool The dialog 206 may be presented in a user interface like that shown in FIG 7 Some embodiments of the disclosed installation tool will have default program folder indicated within the user interface so that the user only needs to hit the enter key to proceed or may alternately override the default selection and either choose another existing program folder or create a program folder Once a program folder has been created the installation tool may perform a search 208 to identify the available printers that can be installed and present a list of such computers to the user The printer installation tool may use any appropriate protocol for this search such as Simple Network Management Protocol SNMP or Common Man agement Information Protocol CMIP While the search is proceeding a running count of detected available printers may be displayed to the user Some embodiments of the disclosed installation tool may allow the user to terminate the search at any time If the user stops the search while it is proceeding the user may still be allowed to select from the list already compiled Once the user selects an available printer from the pre sented list the installation tool performs a check 210 to see whether the SNMP Community string of the selected device is the default value If the SNMP community string is not the default value the user will be presented with a dialog 212 so that the user can enter the correct
48. reen of FIG 9 FIGS 21A 25 are diagrams illustrating exemplary steps used by a disclosed printer installation tool DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION The present invention overcomes the aforementioned disadvantages of existing installation tools by providing a novice friendly printer installation tool that configures both the client computer and the printer and is capable of configuring a client computer for use as a network server In addition the disclosed printer installation tool allows a user to select a unique and intuitive identifier for the printer being installed which will be then be associated with the installed printer by the disclosed installation tool so that it may be quickly identified by a person using the client computer to request a print job by the installed printer The disclosed installation tool may be an embedded firmware implementation of a network print server and its associated client software The disclosed installation tool may be initiated through a CD ROM the web both internet and intranet or from Windows DOS mode with no user interface for example The disclosed installation tool may allow a user who may be either a system administrator or a novice to install the printer in a small or enterprise network for direct Peer to Peer printing The disclosed installation 0 a 5 20 40 45 60 4 tool preferably supports printer installation and client com puter and optionally
49. resented with a Driver location window not shown where the user may select the appropriate driver to install at which point the dialog 218 will appear to name the printer The dialog 218 may be presented in a user interface similar to that shown in FIG 17 The dialog 218 allows the user to give a Windows name of the printer The default will US 7 353 373 B2 13 be the name of the printer in the installed machine Using this window a user preferably has the option of giving the printer an intuitive name by which the user may subse quently recognize that particular printer when sending it a print job so that the user can locate the printer and easily retrieve the completed print job The dialog 218 may also preferably allow the user to select the printer as the default windows computer for local print jobs Once the user has configured and named the selected printer the installation tool may request the driver location as illustrated in FIG 16 the installation tool may select the print type as illustrated in FIG 11B and the disclosed installation tool may push the configuration parameters back to the host computer server using SNMP protocols and updating the printer s DNS name This step may not be necessary if no values have changed i e the default values were selected If however any value has been changed the installation tool will preferably check whether the printer started using the new values pushed to the printer
50. s NT 4 0 Windows 2000 or Windows XP for example If so the printer installation tool will check to see whether the user has such rights and if not display a termination screen not shown informing the user of the his or her lack of authority to install the printer If the printer installation tool does not require the pres ence of Winsock 2 0 to install a printer on a client computer running in a Windows 95 environment or if Winsock 2 0 is present on a client computer running in a Windows 95 environment or if the client computer runs on an operating system other than Windows 95 or if either administrative rights are not required or are present the splash screen 10 will be replaced with the Installer Welcome screen 22 shown in FIG 3 after a user selects the Install Software button 10 The installer welcome screen 22 may present the user with a license agreement that may be selectively browsed in a window 24 The installer welcome prompts the user to either accept the license agreement by selecting the Yes button 26 or decline the license agreement by selecting the No button 28 If the license agreement is not accepted operation of the printer installation tool may either termi nate or the user may be presented with an additional dialog window shown in FIG 4 giving the user the option of either terminating operation of the printer installation tool by selecting the Exit button 34 or to resume installatio
51. s the user to terminate any other application that may be running on the host computer and to make sure that the printer to be installed is turned on and connected to the host computer either locally or through a network Also the installer welcome dialog 170 preferably presents the user with a license agreement that may be either accepted or declined If the user declines the license agree ment the installation tool may be terminated 174 If the user accepts the license agreement the installation tool may proceed and display an installer select dialog 176 The installer select dialog 176 may be presented in a user interface such as that shown in FIG 5 The Installer select dialog preferably gives the user the option of selecting an automatic configuration where the installation tool config ures the selected printer using default network settings or an advanced configuration where the user customizes the set tings of the selected printer Once the user has made the desired selection the installation tool may identify 178 the operating system of the host computer The embodiment of the disclosed installation tool pres ently being discussed is capable of installing a printer within any of the Windows 9x Win NT 4 0 Win 2K or Windows XP operating systems In this embodiment four possible installation procedures may be used a Win 9x automatic configuration 180 a Win 9x advanced configuration 182 a Win NT 4 0 2k XP automatic configuration
52. server configuration in the Win 95 98 ME and WIN NT4 0 WIN 2K and Win XP platforms for example One preferred disclosed printer installation tool is respon sible for the installation of the printer drivers and associated software components for the client computer and any appli cable server The installation application discovers all the available print devices accessible to the client computer either locally or through a shared network and presents a list of those discovered devices to the user who can select the interested one for installation In the discovery process the disclosed printer installation tool discovers one or more of the following the WINS DNS name IP address Location of the printer Device type information MAC address Instal lation flag indicate whether the printer is previously installed in the network or not Sharp Net Mask Sharp Net Gateway DHCP ON OFF printer parameters through SLP discovery The user has the option of configuring printer parameter like the WINS DNS name of the printer location of the printer Installation flag Sharp Net Gateway Sharp Net Mask DHCP ON OFF The user configured printer parameters are pushed back from the client computer and or the server through the SNMP protocol operation Also the disclosed printer installation tool may add registry entries and store the discovered devices in a disk file The disclosed invention may be quickly understood in reference to a series of use
53. string for the selected device or return to the dialog 208 If the SNMP community string is incorrect the user will again be prompted to enter the correct SNMP Community string Once the disclosed installation tool has verified that the correct SNMP community string has been entered the user may be presented with an advanced printer configuration dialog 214 The dialog 214 allows the entry of an IP address for the printer a subnet mask identifier and a default gateway These entries may be made automatically via DHCP or the values may be specified manually Specifying either an invalid address or an address already being used will preferably result in an error message where the user will be prompted to enter correct values Otherwise a printer configuration dialog 216 will appear The dialog 216 allows the user to name the device and optionally provide a location description A default name may be initially displayed in the dialog 116 The default name that is displayed should be the device name retrieved from the printer and is preferably limited to 15 characters and follows the DNS naming convention no spaces no special characters The user can change this name so long as it follows the aforementioned length limitations This name and location string is written back to the printer using SNMP or CMIP and the printer will register this name with the WINS DNS server Once the printer has been configured in the dialog 216 the user may be p
54. such as Windows DOS Linux Unix etc Some embodiments of the installation tool may be configured for use with an individual one of these operating systems or alternatively may be capable of installing a printer on any number of operating systems For example FIGS 21A to 25 illustrate an embodiment for the disclosed installation tool that is able to install and configure a printer on a host computer that operates under either Windows 9x Windows NT Windows 2K or Windows XP Referring specifically to FIGS 21A and 21B this embodi ment of the disclosed installation tool begins by displaying 150 an introductory screen such as the splash screen 10 shown in FIG 1 or any other similar screen The introduc tory screen may be initiated from either the insertion of a CD that contains an executable installation tool into CD ROM drive by downloading the installation tool from the internet or by selecting an executable installation tool program file within a Windows operating system including a DOS prompt The introductory screen preferably presents a user with the option 152 of proceeding with the printer installa tion reviewing any associated documentation or exiting the installation tool If the user elects to exit 154 the installation tool the installation tool may then terminate 156 If the user elects to review associated documentation the installation tool may display 158 the associated documentation to the user so that it may be read
55. t gateway fields will be ungrayed only when the user selects the Specify an IP address option 98 Error Message The address is not valid please enter a valid address Example 172 29 226 68 and try again Wa FIG 13 The address is in use by another device Please provide a unigue address for the device U S Patent Apr 1 2008 Sheet 8 of 14 US 7 353 373 B2 Configure the Printer E Please enter a unique name for the printer This name should be descriptive so that you and others can easily associate it with the printer Example Marketing or BillsAL1023 l SHA00A123456789 Please enter a unique location description for the printer This name should clearly identify where this printer is physically installed Example in Copy room or Next to Bills office or name found on the network via DNS D Please select the model of your Sharp printer If your pinter came with an installation disk click Have Disk If your printer is not listed consult your printer documentation for a compatible printer _ Printers Rants _Listbow Sample tab tab tab Have disk U S Patent Apr 1 2008 Sheet 9 of 14 US 7 353 373 B2 Name the Windows Printer You can type a name for this printer or you Can use DA pame supplied below When you have finished click Next l l BillsPrinter Do you want your Window based programs to use this print
56. y appropriate protocol for this search such as Simple Network Management Protocol SNMP or Common Man US 7 353 373 B2 11 agement Information Protocol CMIP While the search is proceeding a running count of detected available printers may be displayed to the user Some embodiments of the disclosed installation tool may allow the user to terminate the search at any time If the user stops the search while it is proceeding the user may still be allowed to select from the list already compiled Once the user selects an available printer from the pre sented list the installation tool performs a check 194 to see whether the selected printer is being installed for the first time If so the user may be presented with a dialog 196 to configure the printer The dialog 196 may be presented in a user interface like that shown in FIG 15 In the dialog 196 the user is allowed to name the device and optionally provide a location description for the printer A default name may be initially displayed by the dialog 196 The default name that is displayed should be the device name retrieved from the printer and is preferably limited to 15 characters and follows the DNS naming convention no spaces no special characters The user can change this name so long as it follows the aforementioned length limitations This name and location string is written back to the printer using SNMP or CMIP and the printer will register this name with the WINS DNS s

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