Windows XP in a Nutshell

Name

Printers and Faxes

Synopsis

Manage local and network printers.

To Open

Start → Settings → Printers and Faxes (Classic Start menu only)

Control Panel → [Printers and Other Hardware] → Printers and Faxes

Command Prompt → control printers

Description

The Printers and Faxes folder contains icons representing your installed printers and fax devices. Once a printer is installed here, you can print to it from within your applications, drag documents to the its icon to print them, or double-click on the printer icon to see or change the status of current print jobs (see Figure 4-72).

Figure 4-72. Use the Printers and Faxes folder to add, configure, and troubleshoot your printers

The Add Printer wizard helps you select the appropriate printer driver for a local or network printer. Thecontext menu for each printer, among other things, allows you to select that printer as the default printer — the one that appears, by default, in all your applications’ print dialogs.

File → Print is the standard way to print for most applications. Right-clicking on a file then selecting Print from its context menu allows you to send a file to the printer without opening it first, although this can have mixed results. You can also create a shortcut to a printer on the Desktop and then drag-and-drop a file on the printer icon.

Warning

If you drag more than one file to a printer icon, the system will open a separate ...