Introduction to CPSUI

Important

We recommend that you use Microsoft's IPP inbox class driver, along with Print Support Apps (PSA), to customize the print experience in Windows 10 and 11 for printer device development.

For more information, see the Print support app design guide.

The Common Property Sheet User Interface (CPSUI) is a user-mode dynamic-link library that enables developers to create property sheet pages having a common, standard appearance. Most pages created with CPSUI consist of:

• A treeview window, with each tree node representing a selectable, user-modifiable page option.

• A context menu for each tree node, which is used for displaying and selecting parameter values associated with the node.

Context menu items are created using a predefined set of CPSUI-supported window controls. A user selects an option in the treeview window, then selects the desired value for that option using the context menu.

While CPSUI was designed to be used by any application, its primary use is by the NT-based operating system printing subsystem. Therefore, the Windows Driver Kit (WDK) documentation focuses on this use.

CPSUI provides predefined property sheet pages for printers and print documents. CPSUI-supplied pages consist of the Device Settings page for a printer, and the Layout, Paper/Quality, and Advanced pages for a document. These pages can be viewed from the print folder's Printer menu.

The print spooler, in conjunction with printer interface DLLs, use these predefined pages to create property sheets for printers and documents. For information about how the print spooler, printer interface DLLs, and CPSUI interact, see Using CPSUI with Printer Drivers.

Customized user interface code created for Microsoft's Unidrv and Pscript drivers can also use CPSUI. For more information, see User Interface Plug-Ins.