Option Constraints
Important
The modern print platform is Windows' preferred means of communicating with printers. We recommend that you use Microsoft's IPP inbox class driver, along with Print Support Apps (PSA), to customize the print experience in Windows 10 and 11 for printer device development.
For more information, see Modern print platform and the Print support app design guide.
It's sometimes necessary to constrain the ability of users to install or select certain printer options associated with printer features. The following types of option constraints can be specified:
You can constrain an option so that it can't be selected if a conflicting option is already selected. These constraints are called selection constraints.
You can constrain an installable option so that it can't be installed if a conflicting installable option is already installed. These constraints are called installation constraints.
You can constrain an option so that it can't be selected if a conflicting installable option is already installed, or so that it can't be selected if a required installable option isn't installed. These constraints are called constraints between selections and installations.
The driver's user interface code enforces constraints when the user chooses the OK button on the printer's property sheet dialog box. If invalid combinations of options have been selected, the user is given the choice of either correcting the conflicts by modifying the property sheet page or letting the driver attempt to make corrections automatically, based on feature conflict priority.