Printer Device

"Hey, grab that TPS report off the printer device," said no one ever.

From Craig Zacker's "Exam Ref MCSA 70-410: Installing and Configuring Windows Server 2012 R2" book*:

NOTE PRINTING NOMENCLATURE
“Printer” and “print device” are the most commonly misused terms in the Windows printing vocabulary. Obviously, many sources use “printer” to refer to the printing hardware. However, in Windows, printer and print device are not equivalent. For example, you can add a printer to a Windows Server 2012 computer without a physical print device being present. The computer can then host the printer, print server, and printer driver. These three components enable the computer to process the print jobs and store them in a print queue until the print device is available.

I'm not criticizing Craig here at all. I think Microsoft missed the boat with their word choice. Let's take a common usage and avoid it all costs!

And on the topic of printers, I've seen it time and again when someone goes into "Devices and Printers" to make a change to their printer settings. Right-click and you get these options:

Naturally, everyone goes to the bottom of the list and selects "Properties" - only to be disappointed when they get this.

Cancel. Right-click and remember to click "Printer Properties". Ah, there is something useful.

* And, for those of you keeping score at home. I've started studying for my MCSA/MCSE.

Word of the Day: Panoply

I was trouble-shooting an Active Directory/DNS problem at work today and was using my google-fu to find a resolution. My search lead me to Troubleshooting DNS - which did not help me solve my problem, but did expand my vocabulary:

"Windows supports a whole panoply of naming services: DNS, WINS, HOSTS, LMHOSTS, and more."

And thus, I present "panoply" - a wide-ranging and impressive array or display.

So Microsoft has an impressive array of naming services. Who knew?!?