Microsoft Technology Licensing, LLC

Feng Yue

Khaled Salah Sedky

Harvinder Pal Singh

Oliver H Foehr

Adina Magdalena Trufinescu

Justin Allen Hutchings

Frank Gorgenyi

Daniel Emerson

Erik O Peterson

Gilman Kuey Wong

Hock San Lee

Michael P Fenelon

Adrian F Maxa

Amanda Giang-Tien Nguyen

John C Bowler

Michael Dean Stokes

J Andrew Goossen

Kristofer Noel Iverson

Darren Ray Davis

Peter J Kaufman

Jesse D McGatha

Yuhang Zhu

Mark A Lawrence

Vladimir Holostov

Sean Anderson Bowles

Hristo H Ivanov

Richard Ivan June

Yulin Jin

Janani Vasudevan

Joshua A Dersch

John Chadwell Spaith

Justin Alexander Hou

Benjamin Kuhn

Albert Leon Ting

Shawn E Maloney

Craig I McLuckie

Javier Novales

Pradeep Mayakontla

J Andrew Goosen

Jesse Mcgatha

Michael Fenelon

Various technologies described herein pertain to managing multiple enrollments of a computing device into configuration sources. Respective enrollment types for the enrollments into the configuration sources can be detected. Moreover, respective control data for the enrollments into the configuration sources can be set based on the enrollment types. Provisioning elements (e.g., policies, preferences, configuration profiles, and resources) that satisfy the respective control data can be permitted to be applied to the computing device by the configuration sources as part of the enrollments. Further, disparate provisioning elements that fail to satisfy the respective control data can be prevented from being applied to the computing device as part of the enrollments.

Multi-enrollments of a computing device into configuration sources

Embodiments relate to an operating system configured to enable arbitrary applications to output 3D models to be physically formed by arbitrary 3D manufacturing devices. The operating system manages the 3D manufacturing devices, including installation of related software, device drivers, device properties, and so forth. The operating system also provides a path through which the arbitrary applications pass arbitrary print jobs (or documents) of 3D models, in a standard format, to the 3D manufacturing devices. The operating system handles queuing and spooling on behalf of the applications and the 3D manufacturing devices. Drivers of the 3D manufacturing devices may translate the 3D models outputted by the applications (in the standard format) to instructions or device language content that is specific to the respective 3D manufacturing devices.

3D manufacturing platform

Graphics primitive and color channel techniques are described. In one or more implementations, image data is processed by a computing device to form a plurality of pixels and corresponding one or more color channels usable to define a color for a respective said pixel. A graphics primitive type is identified by the computing device associated with one or more of the pixels in the processed image data. The graphics primitive type is assigned by the computing device to the one or more pixels using at least one color channel.

Graphics primitive and color channels

Some embodiments of the invention provide a printer user interface (UI) component configured to handle presentation of information to a user during printing operations. The printer UI component may de-couple the rendering and configuration functionality provided by a printer driver from the presentation of information to end users, thereby reducing the risk that applications may crash or hang due to printer driver malfunction. In some embodiments, a registry of events upon which information should be presented to the user is established, and the printer UI component may be registered for some or all of these events, so that when the specified events occur the printer UI component may be invoked to cause information to be presented to the user.

Printer driver and application decoupling using event centric registration model

In one or more embodiments, a print server can publish, to client devices, capabilities and configurations of one or more print devices utilizing a device-independent 'personality.' Client devices can then use an associated device-independent print driver to select print job settings and record print job content for a particular print job, in a device-independent format, that is then to be sent to the print server. The print server can then process the device-independent format that describes the print job, and convert the print job into a print device-specific format that can be consumed by a particular specific print device. In at least some embodiments, the client device can cause a print job to be printed on a print device, via a print server, without downloading, utilizing or otherwise accessing a print driver that is specific to the print device.

Printing using a platform-independent driver

Some embodiments of the invention provide techniques whereby a printer driver may be modified and supplemented over time. For example, a framework may be provided which enables a printer driver's functionality to be supplemented over time to include new and/or enhanced features, such as features relating to the manner in which the capabilities of a printer are configured, print settings are manipulated, information is presented to users, print-related system events are handled, etc. In some embodiments, one or more components (which may be included in a print subsystem provided by an operating system of a computing device, in a printer driver, and/or some other system element) may be configured to automatically seek and acquire configuration data from any of various sources, including the printer device, one or more online sources, and/or other sources.

Adaptable printer driver

Spooling strategies are described for producing job information that conforms to a hierarchical structure, and then storing the job information in a spool storage. The job information is then retrieved from the spool storage and consumed. The structured job information includes a multi-level hierarchy of nodes, including a job level that represents the entire job, a document level that represents a document to be processed within the job; a rendition level that represents a rendition of the document to be processed; and a page level that represents a page associated with the rendition. In addition, filter logic processes job information based on capabilities of a target entity utilizing the job information.

Spooling strategies using structured job information

Spooling strategies are described for producing job information that conforms to a hierarchical structure, and then storing the job information in a spool storage. The job information is then retrieved from the spool storage and consumed. The structured job information includes a multi-level hierarchy of nodes, including a job level that represents the entire job, a document level that represents a document to be processed within the job; a rendition level that represents a rendition of the document to be processed; and a page level that represents a page associated with the rendition. The hierarchical structure can also include resource nodes and metadata nodes associated with any level of the hierarchy, respectively representing resources and metadata. The hierarchy can optionally be composed using one or more selection and sequence parts. Program logic implements the production and consumption of the job information by providing a collection of logic modules for selectively adding and retrieving elements to the hierarchically structure. The program logic also provides logic for enumerating the contents of the job information and for signaling the occurrence of various events associated with the processing of the job information.

Strategies for simultaneous peripheral operations on-line using hierarchically structured job information

A hierarchical spooling data structure includes a plurality of nodes. In accordance with certain aspects, the plurality of nodes include at least four nodes: a first node representing a fixed page of the job; a second node representing a fixed document of the job, the second node including a reference to the first node; a third node containing data representing a fixed sequence of documents of the job, the third node including a reference to the second node; and a fourth node containing data representing a root of the job, the fourth node including a reference to the third node.

Hierarchical arrangement for spooling job data

A job completion architecture, includes content that is specified as a hierarchical tree of related content units and a set of multilevel tickets associated with instances of the hierarchically arranged content units. The job manager applies the multilevel tickets, specifying property settings at potentially multiple levels within the hierarchical tree, according to a qualified inheritance rule wherein settings applicable to a set of lower level properties that are specified within a first (higher level) ticket are incorporated into the merged settings to the extent a second (lower level) ticket does not specify settings for the set of lower level properties. If a same property is specified in both a higher and lower level ticket, during merging a setting specified in the lower level ticket overrides the higher level ticket setting.

Multilevel ticket-based job management architecture for computing devices

Notification mechanisms for use in connection with print systems are described. In one embodiment, a notification mechanism extends from a printing application to the spooler, from the spooler to a hosting process, and back to the spooler. The notification mechanism can allow interested applications, such as print user interfaces, to register to receive updates on the progress of a print job. The notification mechanism provides a very rich and robust mechanism through which notifications can be generated and received.

Notification methods and systems for print-related systems

In a described implementation, a production device, such as a computer, produces a shared resources container that includes shareable resources. Each resource of the shared resources container includes a part name and corresponding data. The production device downloads the shared resources container to a utilization device. The production device also formulates a job container, such as a print job. The production device analyzes resource usage of the job container during processing thereof. If a resource relevant to the job container is included in the shared resources container, the resource is excluded from the job container in lieu of a resource reference that is insert therefor. The production device also downloads the job container to the utilization device. At the utilization device, the job container is processed using the resource reference. Specifically, the resource reference is used to retrieve the associated resource from the shared resources container.

Sharing of downloaded resources

A flexible printing subsystem is enabled with a printer filter pipeline. A configurable and arbitrary number of printer filters forming a printer filter pipeline are applied to files that are to be printed. In a described implementation, the printer filter pipeline may implement enhancement features and conversion functions as determined by the individual printer filters forming the printer filter pipeline. The printer filter pipeline is established in accordance with a printer filter configuration file. The printer filter configuration file stipulates a printer filter order and includes a printer filter entry associated with each printer filter to be part of the printer filter pipeline. Each printer filter entry identifies the associated printer filter by name and enumerates the interfaces thereof. Printer filters may be adjacently linked in a printer filter pipeline when their mating interfaces match.

Printer filter configuration

Printing systems and methods are described in which the priorities of print jobs are programmable. A scheduler component oversees print job management and scheduling, and works in concert with components called prioritizers, to provide for ease of programming and customization. In at least some embodiments, an interface to the system is provided to allow prioritizers to be programmed and inserted to customize the behavior of the scheduler according to different print job properties. In at least some embodiments, the system utilizes a model for the relative prioritization of print queues in the system to enforce a fair to balancing of system resources between print queues. In at least some embodiments, the system can independently schedule the rendering and printing operations when printing a job and can use a heuristic known as 'starvation risk' to help ensure that throttling rendering in the system does not result in device starvation.

Print job queuing and scheduling systems and methods

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Sammamish, WA, United States of America

Feng Yue