1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an information processing apparatus that can manage a peripheral device, a peripheral device control method, and a program.
2. Description of the Related Art
A peripheral device control system enables a user of an information processing apparatus to access a peripheral device via an appropriate interface, such as Universal Serial Bus (which may be referred to as USB in the following description), Ethernet®, or wireless LAN. This kind of control systems can be effectively used for various users in their houses and offices. An example of the peripheral apparatus is, for example, a printer, a copying machine, a facsimile machine, a scanner, a digital camera, or a multifunction peripheral.
Further, Windows®7 (hereinafter, referred to as W7), which is provided by Microsoft Corporation, includes newly introduced functions to manage peripheral apparatuses connected to a personal computer (hereinafter, referred to as PC) or comparable information processing apparatus.
In W7, Device Stage® can be thought of as a home page for peripheral hardware such that when a new peripheral device is connected to a PC (device running W7), a menu of tasks for the newly connected peripheral is shown in one place. Device Stage includes a “Devices and Printers folder” serving as a window that displays a peripheral device connected to the PC. Further, Device Stage® can display a link to a unique application or service provided by each peripheral device. Hereinafter, the “Devices and Printers folder” is referred to as “DP folder.”
Thus, it becomes feasible to provide a task (button) on a Device Stage screen as a link to a function for displaying an electronic manual (EM) dedicated to each peripheral device. In this case, the Device Stage screen enables users to launch (execute) a manual viewer application to display an EM for an intended peripheral device.
An example of the peripheral device is a multi function peripheral (MFP) device, such as a printer with capability to scan, fax and email documents. Further, an example of the application is the manual viewer application. The manual viewer application can be used to display an EM for each peripheral device. In general, the above-described application can support a plurality of peripheral devices and a plurality of languages.
The application can display a user interface that includes a peripheral device selection field and a language selection field to enable users to select a peripheral device or select a language. Thus, each user can use a preferred language to display and execute functions of a target peripheral device.
The electronic manuals, which can be displayed by the manual viewer application, are prepared for each peripheral device using a plurality of languages with reference to a plurality of destinations thereof. A setup program determines a language of the EM for each peripheral device, when the EM is installed, with reference to a view language of the Operating System (which may be referred to as OS in the following description). Further, users may be allowed to select a preferred version (language) of the EM for each peripheral device.
If an application does not have any function for selecting a peripheral device or a language, the application constantly uses the peripheral device and the language that have been selected or designated in an installation process.
Further, if an application has a function for selecting a peripheral device or a language, the application preliminarily sets a peripheral device and a language as initial values selected or designated in an installation process. In this case, after the installation is completed, users are allowed to change the setting in a selectable range so as to designate an intended peripheral device or a preferred language.
Further, the information processing apparatus capable of performing the above-described processing is, for example, discussed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2005-85132.
As described above, a static text file having an Extensible Markup Language (XML) format cannot include any executable script. Therefore, performing file generation, file editing (especially, writing), generation of registry information storing setting information, and editing (especially, writing) of the registry information is difficult.
Accordingly, when a user executes a function (presses a button) on the Device Stage (peripheral device management screen), it is difficult to designate an appropriate language set by the user and execute (display) the function.