Question

I want to write a dummy printer driver which appears as a shared printer on a LAN and can accept print jobs; so when its installed on a computer other computers in the LAN can browse and add it as a usual shared network printer and send print jobs to it. I want to do this in c#, are there any better suggestions?

Can anyone tell me any information regarding this, tips, tools, reading material etc. anything!

Answer 1

If you just want a printer that will accept jobs and not do anything with the data, you don’t need to write your own printer driver. Just create a local printer, and when it asks you for the port create a new local port and give it the name NUL. From the Windows XP Professional Product Documentation:

If the printer is physically attached
to the print server, select the
appropriate local port. LPT1 through
LPT3 represent parallel ports; COM1
through COM4 represent serial ports
When a client prints to a printer port
denoted as FILE, the client is
prompted for the file name. If you
decide to add a new local port you can
enter one of the following:

• A file name, such as C:\Dir\Filename. All jobs sent to this
  port are written to the named file,
  and each new job overwrites the last
  one.

• The share name of a printer, such as \Server\Printer (URLs are not
  accepted). Jobs sent to this port are
  transferred over the network to the
  named share by the network redirector.

• NUL. This specifies the null port, which you can use to test whether
  network clients can send jobs. Jobs
  sent to NUL are deleted without
  wasting paper or delaying real print
  jobs.

• IR. Use this port to connect to infrared-enabled printers meeting
  Infrared Data Association (IrDA)
  specifications. If your hardware does
  not support IR, it will not be listed
  on the Ports tab.