What is a Type 3 printer driver?
Type 3, also called the version 3 (v3) driver model, is the long-standing way Windows printer drivers are built. In the Print Management console, the Driver Type column shows these drivers as Type 3 - User Mode. The number is the driver model version, not a CPU ring or a virtualization type. "User mode" means the driver runs in user-mode processes alongside the print spooler instead of inside the Windows kernel.
Type 3 replaced the older Type 2 kernel-mode printer drivers of the Windows NT 4.0 era. Because a Type 3 driver runs outside the kernel, a driver fault can crash the print spooler but shouldn't bring Windows down with a stop error. Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2 added printer driver isolation, which can run a driver in its own process so a crash doesn't take the spooler down either.
How Type 3 drivers work
- Vendor-written: each manufacturer supplies its own driver, often per model or model family, usually built on Microsoft's Unidrv (for PCL and similar printers) or PScript5 (for PostScript printers) core drivers with vendor additions.
- Architecture-specific: each driver is built for a particular CPU architecture, such as x64 or 32-bit x86.
- Point and Print: when a user connects to a shared printer, the client downloads and installs the driver from the print server.
Type 3 drivers on a print server
Because clients download the server's driver, a print server has to host a Type 3 driver for every client architecture it serves. A Windows server sharing a printer with 64-bit and 32-bit clients needs both the x64 and x86 versions, added through the Additional Drivers button on the printer's Sharing tab or in Print Management. If the matching version is missing, clients can't connect or are prompted for a driver.
Point and Print installs are also a security concern. Since Microsoft's PrintNightmare security fixes, Windows by default requires administrator rights to install a printer driver through Point and Print, so a standard user connecting to a share may see an admin credential prompt.
Type 3 vs. Type 4
| Type 3 | Type 4 (v4) | |
|---|---|---|
| Introduced | Windows 2000 | Windows 8 and Windows Server 2012 |
| Print path | GDI-based, with data types such as RAW and EMF | XPS-based |
| Who writes it | The vendor, usually per model or series | Often a class driver covering many models |
| Print server | Must host a driver for each client architecture | Clients don't download the vendor driver from the server the old way |
For the CompTIA A+ exam
Driver types aren't named in Core 1 (220-1201). They relate to objective 3.7, which covers using the right drivers for the operating system (including PCL vs. PostScript) and setting up print servers and shared printers, and to objective 2.3, which lists print servers as a server role. The practical takeaway: with Type 3 drivers, a print server needs the right driver for each client architecture.