Reading about the history of windows and printer drivers was...enlightening
Windows V3 Printer Driver
- This is the classic scenario where you download the printer driver onto your computer
- And the printer manufacturers would each create their own (crappy) driver that follows the V3 model
- These were fine I guess but vulnerable to this "PrintNightmare" vulnerability so Windows freaked out and made the...
Windows V4 Printer Drivers
- Then there was V4 which were apparently more secure but a pain in the BUTT
- The way these work is the driver stuff is located on the printer/printer server, not your computer
- Instead Windows will grab the needed driver stuff from the printer/print server
- If Windows says a printer has the "Microsoft enhanced Point and Print driver", that's what that means
- I think you can have a V4 driver on your computer locally if the driver on your computer is the exact same as the printer/print server?
- This is honestly confusing
Internet Printing Protocol (the GOAT)
- The newest is the "Internet Printing Protocol", which shouldn't require any drivers at all
- IPP is from IEEE, not Windows
- As of 2026 Windows prefers IPP over V3/V4
- Microsoft's WPP and Universal Print are related to IPP (I think)
- Windows stopped packaging V3/V4 third-party drivers with Windows updates
- This is what Apple's AirPrint is based on
- The problem is that:
- not all printers support IPP (though most do)
- some printers you have to enable IPP manually
- if there are any settings that the printer manufacturer excluded from IPP then GOOD LUCK BUDDY
- In case you can't tell I'm biased towards this one
TLDR; For a while the default was that each printer manufacturer made their own crappy drivers that the user had to deal with. IPP should (hopefully) fix this by being a universal standard. Kinda like RCS but for printing. Just my opinion, subject to change.
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