As we all know, Windows 8 Consumer Preview has been unveiled at the Mobile World Congress (MWC) in Barcelona, Spain. Arguably the latest and the greatest version of the operating system from the Windows family, the Windows 8 Consumer Preview comes integrated with over 100,000 code changes if we compare it with the Windows 8 Developer Preview launched last September. However, over here we will look into the printer specific enhancements in Windows 8 Consumer Preview.
For users at home
As claimed by Steven Sinofsky, president of the Windows division at Microsoft at the MWC on Feb 29th, around 80-90 percent of printers worldwide, wouldn’t require a driver to be installed to run them on Windows 8 Consumer Preview. So, in most of the cases, end users who wish to have Windows 8 as the OS for their PC at home, needn’t bother about the printer drivers anymore. All they need is to connect their printer to the computer and print whatever they want.
For businesses
For small-business/home business owners as well, and of course for those who have large business establishments, printing scenarios are simplified in Windows 8. The scalability, availability, and reliability of printing services over the network have been enhanced, leading to a reduction in administration costs. Print jobs that are sent from client computers running Windows 8 to a printer that is shared on a server running on Windows Server 8 go directly to the local branch office printer. Print jobs do not have to first travel over the network to the remote print server.
For administrators
Administrators can also breathe easy. Their job to load different driver packages onto the print server for different client computer architectures is done away with. Windows 8 also doesn’t require a driver under a scenario when the server computer runs Windows Server 8.
The Windows 8 Consumer Preview version is available for free download. Simply follow this link to download it on your computer. Also try to run your printer by simply connecting it to your computer again. If Mr. Sinofsky’s statement is to be believed, the probability that your printer will work is 8 out of 10. So all the best; and enjoy!
Image by: Ceo1O17
