Print Driver Management

Note: Print driver management applies to Direct Print only.

One of the most challenging aspects of managing printers is managing drivers. Pharos Cloud simplifies print driver management by allowing IT admins to:

  • Centrally manage print drivers in the cloud
  • Select a driver from the list of manufacturer’s printer drivers for Windows in the Pharos Cloud web console
  • Upload device-specific drivers using the new Driver Capture tool
  • Use the Pharos IPP Class driver
  • Hide drivers from the list, especially those not relevant to your organization.
  • Set a default printer driver. This becomes the default driver when creating a Windows queue. If not specified, it will default to HP Universal Printing PCL 6 (v7.1.0).

Print drivers for Windows in Pharos Cloud

To simplify print driver management, the Pharos Cloud comes with universal drivers for various printer manufacturers for Windows. When IT admins configure print queues in the Direct > Direct Printers > Print Queues tab of the Pharos Cloud web console, they can now select a driver from the list of pre-loaded manufacturer drivers for Windows. Each print driver also comes with a list of pre-configured finishing options (printing preferences).

Adding a direct printer (either manually or automatically) from the Pharos Secure Release desktop app automatically downloads and installs print drivers and finishing options on user workstations.

If any of the pre-loaded drivers are not suitable for a device, IT admins can easily add specific print drivers using the new Driver Capture tool.

Driver Capture Tool

Use the Driver Capture tool to upload drivers as well as set up related finishing options into Pharos Cloud. With the Driver Capture tool, an IT admin can:

  • Upload print drivers and finishing options. For organizations that require print drivers other than the ones in the Pharos Print Analytics driver store, there is an option to upload device-specific print drivers to Pharos Print Analytics.
  • Add new finishing options for an existing driver. Create new finishing options for existing drivers in Pharos Print Analytics. For example, IT admins can create a new finishing option configuration (e.g., A3, Color, Duplex) for the existing HP Universal Printing PCL 6 (v7.0.1) print driver.

Note: Adding print drivers is supported on Windows only. macOS is not supported.

For more information on Driver Capture tool, refer to the Driver Capture tool document.

Manage Drivers

Selecting the Manage Drivers option (located in the Direct > Direct Printers > Printers screen) opens a dialog box displaying a list of available printer drivers along with their configuration settings.

Show/hide drivers from the list

The Show/Hide option allows you to display or hide a printer driver. By default, all universal printer drivers are shown on the web console when creating a print queue. If you want to hide a particular printer driver, choose the one you want to hide and click on the "Hide" option. Hiding a print driver will take it off the list of available print drivers when creating print drivers.

Set a default printer driver

The "Make Default" option allows you to designate a specific print driver as the default choice when setting up Windows print queues. To set a print driver as the default, select the print driver that you want to set as the default. Select the Make Default option. Click the Save button to confirm and save the changes.

In Use

A print driver is tagged as In Use if the driver is used by a queue.