InstallPrinterDriverFromPackage function

Article
01/07/2021

Installs a printer driver from a driver package that is in the print server's driver store.

Syntax

HRESULT InstallPrinterDriverFromPackage(
  _In_ LPCTSTR pszServer,
  _In_ LPCTSTR pszInfPath,
  _In_ LPCTSTR pszDriverName,
  _In_ LPCTSTR pszEnvironment,
  _In_ DWORD   dwFlags
);

Parameters

pszServer [in]: A pointer to a constant, null-terminated string that specifies the name of the print server. NULL means the local computer.
pszInfPath [in]: A pointer to a constant, null-terminated string that specifies the driver store path to the print driver's .inf file. NULL means the driver is in an inf file that shipped with Windows.
pszDriverName [in]: A pointer to a constant, null-terminated string that specifies the name of the driver.
pszEnvironment [in]: A pointer to a constant, null-terminated string that specifies the processor architecture (for example, Windows NT x86). This can be NULL.
dwFlags [in]: This can only be 0 or IPDFP_COPY_ALL_FILES. A value of 0 means that the printer driver must be added and any files in the printer driver directory that are newer than corresponding files currently in use must be copied. A value of IPDFP_COPY_ALL_FILES means the printer driver and all the files in the printer driver directory must be added. The file time stamps are ignored when dwFlags has a value of IPDFP_COPY_ALL_FILES.

Return value

If the operation succeeds, the return value is S_OK, otherwise the HRESULT will contain an error code.

For more information about COM error codes, see Error Handling.

Remarks

Note

This is a blocking or synchronous function and might not return immediately. How quickly this function returns depends on run-time factors such as network status, print server configuration, and printer driver implementation factors that are difficult to predict when writing an application. Calling this function from a thread that manages interaction with the user interface could make the application appear to be unresponsive.

The driver store is typically either %windir%\inf or %windir%\System32\DriverStore\FileRepository.

InstallPrinterDriverFromPackage also installs other files in the package, such as color profiles and print processors.

Users must have printer administration rights to install either on a remote computer or on the local computer when the user is logged in with Terminal Services.

Only signed packages can be installed on a remote computer.

Requirements

Requirement	Value
Minimum supported client	Windows Vista [desktop apps only]
Minimum supported server	Windows Server 2008 [desktop apps only]
Header	Winspool.h (include Windows.h)
Library	Winspool.lib
DLL	Spoolss.dll
Unicode and ANSI names	InstallPrinterDriverFromPackageW (Unicode) and InstallPrinterDriverFromPackageA (ANSI)