HP Universal Print Driver

The HP UPD simplifies driver deployment and management across multiple devices and networks via a unified program.

In Dynamic Mode, it provides discovery, auto configuration, and management features that are particularly well suited for mobile computer users.

In Dynamic Mode, searching for devices is accomplished using the mDNS discovery protocol (aka Bonjour).

Users will need to enter IP addresses for remote devices unless they have been previously discovered or are available on a managed printers list.

Whether discovered, entered, or chosen, the HP universal printing dialog box submits SNMP requests to the target device’s IP address.

The results are used by HP UPD to update the print driver table in the Windows registry to accurately reflect the target device’s capabilities.

The results are also cached (CREG) and the recently discovered device list is updated to provide an easy method for future selection.

Automatic configuration does not occur in Traditional Mode; but, users can select manual updates to ensure the device’s capabilities are properly represented.

HP UPD installer allows some driver default settings to be modified via command line options.

When the HP UPD is activated, it begins by searching the network for the MPL file as shown in Figure 6.

This is a graphical popup window that displays a dashboard of toner supply levels, links for reordering consumables, and an instant support landing page for that particular HP device model.

By querying the printer through SNMP get commands, network traffic is kept to a minimum and is only present during printing.