Printer Testing Overview

Article
09/14/2012

Note This content applies to the Windows Logo Kit (WLK). For the latest information using the new Windows Hardware Certification Kit (HCK), see Windows HCK User's Guide on the Windows Hardware Dev Center.

The procedures that are presented in this section outline the process for testing your printer for correct functionality with the Windows operating system. These procedures use the Windows Logo Kit (WLK) and Driver Test Manager (DTM). To ensure full functionality, you must run all of the tests that DTM identifies as required for the device. If your product provides bus-specific support, you must run the appropriate bus-specific tests in addition to the standard tests.

Printer Program Categories

There are four printing programs in the WLK:

Consumer Printing
Consumer Printing – Rally Enabled (Network)
Enterprise Printing
Enterprise Printing – Rally Enabled (Network)

The following sections will help you decide which program is necessary for your device. This is dependent on the capabilities of the device.

Consumer vs. Enterprise

Consumer programs are targeted towards printers to be used in the home environment. Consumer programs will run on the client versions of Windows and receive a Windows client operating system (OS) logo.

Enterprise programs are targeted towards printers designed for the enterprise environment. Enterprise programs will run on the server versions of Windows and receive a Windows server OS logo.

Consumer Printing/Consumer Printing – Rally Enabled (Network) available operating systems:

Windows XP
Windows Vista
Windows 7

Enterprise Printing/Enterprise Printing – Rally Enabled (Network) available operating systems:

Windows 2003
Windows 2008
Windows 2008 R2 (x64)/ Windows 7 (x86)

Note When testing x86 drivers using the Enterprise Printing and Enterprise Printing – Rally Enabled (Network) programs, use the Windows 7 x86 operating system. The device will only receive a Windows Server 2008 R2 logo.

Printing vs. Printing – Rally Enabled (Network)

The Printing programs are designed to test printers over all non-network connections, such as Universal Serial Bus (USB) and Bluetooth.

The Printing – Rally Enabled (Network) programs are designed for all network-attached printers (both wired and wireless). This program tests the device for all Rally requirements. Please visit the LogoPoint website to view the Printing requirements.

Note If your device is able to connect to a network (wired or wireless), and you are testing against Windows 7 or Windows Server 2008 R2 logo program requirements, it must pass the Printing – Rally Enabled (Network) program.

Note You must test the printer over each bus that the printer supports. If a device contains both a USB and an Ethernet bus, you must run both Printing and Printing – Rally Enabled (Network) programs.

Printer Tests

The list of tests you need to run depends on the capabilities of the device or system being tested. For the complete list of tests that could be required for your device, see Printer Tests.

Run time: Approximately 10 hours

Printer – Rally Enabled (Network) tests

When you create a new submission using the Rally Enabled (Network) program, you receive a prompt for "Printer Network Connection Type." Please select one of the following options:

If your device supports wireless only, select Wireless Only.
If your device supports a wired connection type only, select Wired only.
If your device supports both wireless and wired connections, select Wired and Wireless.

Note If you support both connection types, you can configure the device as necessary to run each set of tests appropriately. For example, you can run all print tests and wired tests through the wired connection, and then switch to wireless to run the wireless tests.

Hardware Requirements

The following hardware is required for printer testing. Additional hardware may be required if the test device provides bus-specific support. See the test description for each bus-specific test to determine whether there are additional hardware requirements.

Basic WLK test setup (Controller, Studio, and Client systems)
At least one printer installed on a Client system (locally or over the network)

For the Additional Qualification - Windows HD Imaging, the Printing kit requires that color printers pass color quality tests. This requires the test lab to have a color measurement device suitable for the output medium. The device must meet ASTM standard E805-01a Standard Practice for Identification of Instrumental Methods of Color or Color-Difference Measurement of Materials, which is available from the ASTM website. These devices are available from multiple manufacturers. Follow your manufacturer's instructions to set up and operate the device. For more information on the color tests, please see the WinColorKit website.

In addition, the testing area must meet the recommended operating guidelines set by both the manufacturer of the color measurement device and the manufacturer of the color device that is being measured.

Other hardware may be required to enable certain scenarios, but it is not required to test a device and create a submission package.

Kernel Debugger system attached to the DTM Client
Print server to test print server configurations

Note Testing a device for Server Device qualification requires that the system being used to test the device support four processors and a minimum of 1 GB of RAM. These system capabilities are required for the "Dynamic Partitioning (DP) Simulator and Test" and the "Multiple Processor Group" test to run. You do not need a system that actually supports DP capabilities or has more than 64 processors to test your device.

If a pool of systems is used to test devices, at least one system in the pool must contain four processors and a minimum of 1 GB of RAM. Additionally, that system must contain the device and driver being tested. As long as the driver is the same on all systems in the pool, the schedule will be created to run against all systems.

For those tests that do not include a driver to test, such as testing a hard disk drive, the Driver Test Manager (DTM) scheduler will constrain the DP test to run on the default system. This system should also be manually configured to have multiple processor groups. The default system is the first one listed. Test personnel, in this case, should ensure that this first system meets these minimum hardware requirements.

Note Except for para-virtualization drivers (as defined by Logo Program Requirement Policy-0020), physical devices and their associated drivers being tested for a server logo or signature may not be tested in virtual machines using any form of virtualization. This is because not all virtualization products support the underlying functionality needed to pass the tests relating to Multiple Processor Groups, Device Power Management, Device PCI functionality, and so on.

Software Requirements

It is good practice to clean-install the operating system on client systems before final test passes to ensure that the system is in a known clean state.

The following software is required to run the printer tests:

The correct operating system build on the DTM client for the intended logo program

Note Windows Server 2008 R2 is supported.
AppVerifier

Note This application is installed during Client setup.
The driver package that is being tested on a client system
.NET Framework 3.5 for computers with Windows Server 2008 installed. This ensures that the tests run correctly.

Note This application is installed during Client setup.

Tester Knowledge Requirements

To run the printer tests, testers must know how to accomplish the following tasks:

Install a printer on a client system.
Use WLK to create new submissions and package results.

This section includes:

Preparing for the Printer Testing

Running the Printer Tests

Build date: 9/14/2012