Chapter five. Controlling Printers

IN THIS CHAPTER

Adding and Removing Printers 142

Configuring Printers 145

Managing the Printing Process 148

The Bottom Line 151

Windows has been pretty good at printer management for several versions now. You install the proper printer drivers, tell Windows which is your main (default) printer, and then you're ready to print. Unless you run into problems during a particular print job, printing is as simple as clicking the Print button from inside your favorite application.

Yes, you can still pause and cancel print jobs in progress. Yes, you can still install multiple printers on your system, and choose between them when it's time to print. (I show you how to do all these things, of course.) But, more often than not, I just click and print.

One relatively new feature in Windows XP is the ease in which you can set up a small network, and then share a printer between several different computers. If you're interested in this type of printer sharing, go directly to Chapter 20, "Setting Up a Home or Small Business Network." In that chapter I show you how to use Windows XP's Network Setup Wizard. You use this to set up all your networked peripherals.

TIP

If your printer is not on the list, either choose the Generic Manufacturer and Generic/Text Only printer or click the Have Disk button and follow the instructions to install a vendor-supplied driver.