Global Printer Settings

The global printer settings tracked in the registry name the I/O ports to use for printing, and store which printer driver is currently selected as the default. The default printer driver is stored as a value for DefaultPrinter. The printer ports are stored as values in the \Ports subkey. The following registry (.REG) file excerpt defines three printer portsand a default printer driver:

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Printers\Ports]
"Port1"="COM1: 9600"
"Port2"="COM1: 57600"
"Port3"="COM3:"
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Printers]
"DefaultPrinter"="PCL"

On a typical H/PC, the ports correspond to the built-in serial port and Infrared port. For the two "COM1:" ports, a baud rate is also given. It is up to the printer driver to parse the values in the \Ports subkey in order to extract the baud rate and device filename. The default printer driver in this example, "PCL", is the name of a subkey within [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Printers\] where Windows CE can find settings for the PCL printer driver.