print nightmare / print driver V4

[boutn]

Does anyone have any info about this?

I can find a V4 driver on the sharp website, but i dont know why i should be using this one, instead of the specific V3 driver (for an mx-6071 for example)

[mojorolla]

With all the issues that Windows has been having with printers this year, I tend to lean towards "the latest and greatest" when it comes to drivers. There should be a note or readme file with the v4 driver explaining fixed issues or new features.

[PrintWhisperer]

V4 drivers are a 'good news/bad news' story. I haven't personally deployed V4 in Client/Server environments but assisted with a couple of cases:

Good News: BASIC V4 drivers do not require clients to download drivers from the server, bypassing the Print Nightmare problem.

Bad News: Microsoft's V4 drivers use a 'Standard UI' with very few print options (it looks like a typical mini-driver).
For instance, Stapling is NOT a function seen in the Standard UI when bringing up Print Preferences. In order to have extended features you must install a 'Printer Extension' from the manufacturer and that has to be installed at the client level and has no scripting capabilities. (at least for the Kyocera P.E.)

The Printer Extension has an installer which has to be attached to a Printer object when run. I do not know if this must be done for each printer object but it appears so.

Kyo's V4 driver comes in XPS or PCL only.

Printer Extensions - Windows drivers | Microsoft Docs