Forum Discussion
Azure Universal Print drivers
I've had this same issue with Ricoh devices too and couldn't work out how to get the proper drivers in use rather than the universal driver, so I contacted our account manager - we have a load of Ricoh devices in my organisation. At first I was given the advice of updating the driver on the Print Connector to the latest version of the drivers, which I'm going to be honest really didn't make sense but I humoured them. Afterwards I got another call back from them telling me that what I wanted to achieve wouldn't be possible!
The attitude that I was given was that this isn't a Ricoh problem and it's a Microsoft problem to solve, which I can kind of understand to a certain degree but of course that still leaves people like us wondering how we go about providing all the features of a printer\MFD to users if we are to carry on using universal print. Thankfully the biggest issue that my users were complaining about was hold\PIN printing which it looks like Microsoft are implementing for universal print in Windows 11 and and the 21H2 release for Windows 10. However it looks like this will be dependant on the device having firmware installed that will be able to support it too.
At this stage though I'm not sure that there's any immediate answer to being able to use the proper manufacturer drivers in conjunction with universal print, which to be honest is a little bit rubbish but fingers crossed this will be something that will be looked at and implemented, otherwise I feel there really are questions about whether or not it is a viable feature in the long run.
Kis
Rick
RickWijn Frankly yes but then that would just be too convenient for us as admins! ha ha
Anyway, I am playing around with a few things and if you like I can post back here if I manage to make any meaningful progress that might be of any help to you.
- Saurabh_Bansal
Microsoft
RickWijn / kismat I understand your concerns here. However, Universal Print and traditional print drivers work on different technologies. Universal Print prints using PWG's standard IPP protocol eliminating the need for drivers. Printer manufacturers are developing firmwares that work with Universal Print using the IPP protocol.
Universal Print connector is a solution that tries to fill-in the gap until all printers can support Universal Print. It does the translation of driver model to IPP and this translation may vary depending on the quality of driver. I explained this in reply to another post - https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/t5/universal-print-discussions/universal-print-konica-minolta-limited-printing-preferences/td-p/2796882.
For Ricoh specifically, we have seen options getting dropped. Please reach out to Microsoft Support as some customizations may be able to help you.
For Universal Print printers, we do not recommend changing print drivers of user devices. Our goal is to get rid of drivers on user devices completely :).
