Microsoft 's Printer Management Software ?

[JohnNews]

Folks:


Just wondering if Microsoft has its own Printer Management Software. For
example:

Lexmark has MarkVision Canon has Net Spot HP has
Web Jet Admin
Xerox has Center Ware Web Capella has Mega Track Microsoft has
???

Is Microsoft there as yet ? Is Microsoft planning to develop its own
Printer Management Software using Internet Printing Protocol (IPP) ?
Thanks in advance


Thanks,
John.

 

[Chuck]

Actually Microsoft has had printer management software for a long time. The
issue is really that the third party software provides more features and
usually flexibility. If you are asking about printer support software that
has all the possible whistles and bells, and perhaps specific features you
need, I'd look to the third party software.

IE was bad enough, do you think that MS wants to open up another can of
worms?

 

[Tony Edgecombe]

Well its unlikely, for a manufacturer they only need to support their own
devices, Lexmark for instance doesn't need to worry about how a Canon
printer behaves on the network. MS has to cover all the bases so you will
only see MS supporting standards such as IPP or SNMP which the manufacturers
can then adopt as well.

Of course it would be nice to see the print system get some attention as it
is missing many facilities at the moment, for instance you can't drag and
drop jobs between queues, printer pooling doesn't pool and the whole thing
is quite unreliable.