Seamless network installation of device drivers

• US 8,095,925 B2
• Filed: 09/15/2004
• Issued: 01/10/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 09/15/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Kyocera Technology Development
• Original Assignee: Kyocera MITA Corporation (Kyocera Corporation), Kyocera Technology Development
• Inventors: Chamberlin, David, Lee, Sang Yoon, Wang, Zhencai
• Primary Examiner(s): Kang, Insun
• Application Number:
  US10/942,445
• Publication Number:
  US 20060059482A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,673 Days
• Field of Search: None
• US Class Current: 717/174
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/4411 Configuring for operating with peripheral devices; Loading of device drivers

Abstract

A method seamlessly installs, upgrades, and deletes printer and other device drivers over a network. Instead of a computer periodically searching or scanning the network, searching occurs when a user logs into a computer. If a new device is found, driver installation is carried out using seamless pop-up GUI integrated into the OS, rather than by a wizard. The method includes providing a domain controller and a user computer connected to the network; searching the network for newly added devices when detecting a user login; and installing device drivers for the found newly added devices. The method also includes optionally-silent and seamless pop-up GUI; use of scripts and WSH (Windows Scripting Host); deletion grace periods; TCP/IP and/or SNMP; automatically upgrading existing drivers if necessary; maintaining tables of currently installed, to-be-installed, and to-be-deleted devices; applying pre-defined device settings; and obtaining information of a device and applying the information to the driver.

Claims

1. A method for installing and using a device driver across a network, comprising computer executed method steps of:

providing a network device that can be connected to anywhere in the network;

providing at least one domain controller and at least one user computer connected to the network;

upon detecting a user login to the at least one user computer, searching the network for at least one newly added network device that is added to any point in the network;

creating a table of discovered devices comprising discovered devices from searching the network for the at least one newly added network device;

comparing the table of discovered devices with a table of currently existing devices to produce a table of to-be-installed devices, wherein the table of to-be-installed devices optionally comprises to-be-updated devices;

installing device drivers for the at least one newly added network device onto only the at least one user computer;

enabling use of the at least one newly added network device from the at least one user computer so that access from the at least one user computer goes directly to the at least one newly added network device;

comparing the table of discovered devices with the table of currently existing devices to produce a table of to-be-deleted devices comprising devices in the table of currently existing devices that are not in the table of discovered devices; and

for each device in the table of to-be-deleted devices, deleting the device if a delete grace period is set by a user and the delete grace period is exceeded or if the delete grace period and login attempts are exceeded while the device has been unavailable or undetected, optionally displaying and prompting a seamless popup dialog integrated into an operating system of the at least one user computer, the dialog being optionally invisible to the user, and optionally deleting the corresponding device driver of the device if the device corresponds to an only device entry.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the installing of the device drivers comprises providing optionally-silent and seamless pop-up GUI.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the detecting of the user login or the installing of the device drivers comprises running of script files, comprising computer executed method steps of:

parsing parameters in a command line including a username and optionally a password;

running a check with the username and password as parameters to determine privilege sufficiency to install a required device driver, wherein confirmation is made to determine that privilege of the username and password, passed as the parameters is sufficient to install the required device driver;

discovering all relevant devices in the network and IP address range;

obtaining a list of installed device entries and assigned ports using WMI interface from Windows scripting host;

comparing using the script files and the at least one user computer the table of discovered devices and the table of currently existing devices; and

running the script files to install and upgrade all the discovered devices and to delete each device in the table of to-be-deleted devices, with optionally confirming for the delete grace period, in the seamless popup dialog which is invisible to the user.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

searching the network for unavailable devices when detecting the user login; and

deleting device drivers for the searched unavailable devices.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the searching of the at least one newly added network device comprises using TCP/IP or SNMP.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising automatically upgrading the device drivers for the at least one newly added network device if necessary.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising maintaining the tables of currently existing devices, to-be-installed devices, and to-be-deleted devices.

8. The method of claim 1, further comprising applying pre-defined device settings.

9. The method of claim 1, further comprising obtaining information of the at least one newly added network device and applying the information to the device drivers for the at least one newly added network device.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein the device drivers are printer drivers.

11. A computer program product stored on a computer relating to an operation of the image forming and printing apparatus for installing and using a device driver across a network, comprising machine-readable code for causing a machine to perform the computer executed method steps of:

providing a network device that can be connected to anywhere in the network;

providing at least one domain controller and at least one user computer connected to the network;

upon detecting a user login to the at least one user computer, searching the network for at least one newly added network device that is added to any point in the network;

creating a table of discovered devices comprising discovered devices from searching the network for the at least one newly added network device;

comparing the table of discovered devices with a table of currently existing devices to produce a table of to-be-installed devices, wherein the table of to-be-installed devices optionally comprises to-be-updated devices;

installing device drivers for the at least one newly added network device onto only the at least one user computer;

enabling use of the at least one newly added network device from the at least one user computer so that access from the at least one user computer goes directly to the at least one newly added network device;

comparing the table of discovered devices with the table of currently existing devices to produce a table of to-be-deleted devices comprising devices in the table of currently existing devices that are not in the table of discovered devices; and

for each device in the table of to-be-deleted devices, deleting the device if a delete grace period is set by a user and the delete grace period is exceeded or if the delete grace period and login attempts are exceeded while the device has been unavailable or undetected, optionally displaying and prompting a seamless popup dialog integrated into an operating system of the at least one user computer, the dialog being optionally invisible to the user, and optionally deleting the corresponding device driver of the device if the device corresponds to an only device entry.

12. The computer program product of claim 11, wherein the installing of the device drivers comprises providing optionally-silent and seamless pop-up GUI, and wherein the detecting of the user login or the installing of the device drivers comprises running of script files, comprising computer executed method steps of:

parsing parameters in a command line including a username and optionally a password;

running a check with the username and password as parameters to determine privilege sufficiency to install a required device driver, wherein confirmation is made to determine that privilege of the username and password, passed as the parameters is sufficient to install the required device driver;

discovering all relevant devices in the network and IP address range;

obtaining a list of installed device entries and assigned ports using WMI interface from Windows scripting host;

comparing using the script files and the at least one user computer the table of discovered devices and the table of currently existing devices; and

running the script files to install and upgrade all the discovered devices and to delete each device in the table of to-be-deleted devices, with optionally confirming for the delete grace period, in the seamless popup dialog which is invisible to the user.

13. The computer program product of claim 11, further comprising machine-readable code for causing the machine to search the network for unavailable devices when detecting the user login;

and deleting device drivers for the searched unavailable devices, wherein the deleting of the device drivers is performed only when a deletion grace period is exceeded.

14. The computer program product of claim 11, wherein the searching of the at least one newly added network device comprises using TCP/IP or SNMP, and further comprising machine-readable code for causing the machine to automatically upgrade the device drivers for the at least one newly added network device if necessary and to maintain the tables of currently existing devices, to-be-installed devices, and to-be-deleted devices.

15. The computer program product of claim 11, further comprising machine-readable code for causing the machine to apply pre-defined device settings and to obtain information of the at least one newly added network device and applying the information to the device drivers for the at least one newly added network device.

16. A computing system having a processor relating to an operation of the image forming and printing apparatus, comprising a program programmed for installing and using a device driver across a network, comprising computer executed method steps of:

providing a network device that can be connected to anywhere in the network;

providing at least one domain controller and at least one user computer connected to the network;

upon detecting a user login to the at least one user computer, searching the network for at least one newly added network device that is added to any point in the network;

creating a table of discovered devices comprising discovered devices from searching the network for the at least one newly added network device;

comparing the table of discovered devices with a table of currently existing devices to produce a table of to-be-installed devices, wherein the table of to-be-installed devices optionally comprises to-be-updated devices;

installing device drivers for the at least one newly added network device onto only the at least one user computer;

enabling use of the at least one newly added network device from the at least one user computer so that access from the at least one user computer goes directly to the at least one newly added network device;

comparing the table of discovered devices with the table of currently existing devices to produce a table of to-be-deleted devices comprising devices in the table of currently existing devices that are not in the table of discovered devices; and

for each device in the table of to-be-deleted devices, deleting the device if a delete grace period is set by a user and the delete grace period is exceeded or if the delete grace period and login attempts are exceeded while the device has been unavailable or undetected, optionally displaying and prompting a seamless popup dialog integrated into an operating system of the at least one user computer, the dialog being optionally invisible to the user, and optionally deleting the corresponding device driver of the device if the device corresponds to an only device entry.

17. The computing system of claim 16, wherein the installing of the device drivers comprises providing optionally-silent and seamless pop-up GUI, and wherein the detecting of the user login or the installing of the device drivers comprises running of script files, comprising computer executed method steps of:

parsing parameters in a command line including a username and optionally a password;

running a check with the username and password as parameters to determine privilege sufficiency to install a required device driver, wherein confirmation is made to determine that privilege of the username and password, passed as the parameters is sufficient to install the required device driver;

discovering all relevant devices in the network and IP address range;

obtaining a list of installed device entries and assigned ports using WMI interface from Windows scripting host;

comparing using the script files and the at least one user computer the table of discovered devices and the table of currently existing devices; and

running the script files to install and upgrade all the discovered devices and to delete each device in the table of to-be-deleted devices, with optionally confirming for the delete grace period, in the seamless popup dialog which is invisible to the user.

18. The computing system of claim 16, further comprising code for causing the machine to search the network for unavailable devices when detecting the user login;

and deleting device drivers for the searched unavailable devices, wherein the deleting of the device drivers is performed only when a deletion grace period is exceeded.

19. The computing system of claim 16, wherein the searching of the at least one newly added network device comprises using TCP/IP or SNMP, and further comprising machine-readable code for causing the machine to automatically upgrade the device drivers for the at least one newly added network device if necessary and to maintain the tables of currently existing devices, to-be-installed devices, and to-be-deleted devices.

20. The computing system of claim 16, further comprising a print engine and code for applying pre-defined device settings and to obtain information of the at least one newly added network device and applying the information to the device drivers for the at least one newly added network device.