Pcounter for Windows works with Windows 2000/2003/2008 in mixed or native mode. It works with and can display user lists in Active Directory and NT4-compatible domains and organizational units directly without any need to import or create printing accounts. Pcounter also still works with Windows NT 4.0 for sites which have not yet updated its server software for awhile!

Pcounter works with both 32 and 64 bit versions of Windows.

Pcounter for Windows server components together form a flexible, modular, and expandable system, and can track printers located on Windows servers and workstations.

• Pcounter Printer Control service
• Pcounter Data Server service
• Pcounter Port

Printers which are monitored by Pcounter will use the Pcounter Ports as a replacement for the built-in or third-party Windows spooler ports. Pcounter Port is able to precisely monitor the flow of data to printers. Processing only occurs at print time, resulting in significantly lower CPU utilization and overhead. Other products which are only Windows service-based cannot match Pcounter's precision and efficiency.

The PCounter Port
The Pcounter Port has the following technical advantages over competing products and typical Windows printing environments:

• Pcounter is able to see exactly what has been sent to the printer and will not charge for unprinted documents.
• Pcounter can monitor the online status of the printer and handle jobs accordingly (ie. move jobs to other printers if required).
• Pcounter can query the printer for exact page usage per job.
• Pcounter can query the printer for color page usage on many printers.
• Pcounter can efficiently load balance jobs between multiple printers with no CPU overhead.

The Pcounter Port includes support for the following protocols:

• TCP/IP (Raw/AppSocket) - functionally equivalent to using the RAW setting with the Windows TCP/IP port, typically used on IP port 9100.
• LPR
• Local Port - Supports parallel ports and print-to-file
• OtherPrinter - which moves jobs to another print queue on the same server. This allows support for printers which use protocols not directly supported by the Pcounter Port, such as USB and AppleTalk.
• Load Balance

PCounter Services
The Pcounter Printer Control service and Pcounter Port work together to manage printers and are used at the same time on Windows print servers.

The Pcounter Data Server service manages all Pcounter printer accounting data and can run on any Windows machine, allowing all Pcounter data to be kept centrally in a single location.

These components allow Pcounter the flexibility to easily scale to the size of your network. For instance, if all printers are located on one Windows print server, the data can be kept on the same computer by running both services and installing the port monitors. Likewise, in a distributed printing environment, the Pcounter Printer Control service and Pcounter Port can be used on multiple Windows print servers, while running the Pcounter Data Server service on another Windows computer, or even on one of the Windows print servers.

Other features:

• Pcounter works on Windows clusters and x64 operating systems.
• Pcounter has been fully updated and tested with Windows Server 2003 R2 and Vista.
• Pcounter works on networks where Samba is authenticating logons.
• Pcounter can automatically assign print job ownership from other platforms (such as Mac and Unix) or delete the job if an owner cannot be found, or they can use the Web Client to authenticate their jobs.
• Pcounter works with multiple and/or trusted domains.
• Printing accounts for network users do not need to be created or imported - Pcounter creates them automatically if necessary.
• Pcounter works in Citrix and Terminal Services environments.
• Built in LPD server with more features and better Macintosh support than the Microsoft LPD service.
• Intelligent job load balancing across multiple printers.
• Integration with external LDAP servers via an additional DLL.
• Local workstation print tracking.
• Easy integration with NetWare and OES environments.