
Bidirectional Support in Windows What does the Bidirectional Support checkbox do? The setting, found on the Ports tab when looking at the Printer Properties menu in Windows, controls whether a print driver will communicate with the physical printer to determine the printer’s state and find out details like whether a finishing unit is attached.
What does the bidirectional support checkbox do?
What does the Bidirectional Support checkbox do? The setting, found on the Ports tab when looking at the Printer Properties menu in Windows, controls whether a print driver will communicate with the physical printer to determine the printer’s state and find out details like whether a finishing unit is attached.
Is bidirectional support required for your printer – windows?
HomeArticlesArticles Detail Error: Bidirectional Support is Required for Your Printer – Windows Article ID: ART161307 Date published: 06/09/2015 Date last updated: 02/18/2020 Description Set up bidirectional to enable your computer to communicate with your printer.
What is bidirectional communication interface?
Bidirectional communication interfaces, which consist of spooler APIs Bidirectional communication schema, an XML standard for exchanging information with a device The schema describes the requests that an application can make to a device and the format for the requests.
What does bidirectional mean in medical terms?
Medical Definition of bidirectional : involving, moving, or taking place in two usually opposite directions bidirectional flow of materials in axons bidirectional replication of DNA Other Words from bidirectional

What does bidirectional communication mean?
Bidirectional is a communications mode that is capable of transmitting data in both directions (send and receive), but not at the same time. Bi-di (bidirectional) is also a printer port mode that was first introduced by IBM in 1987 with their introduction of the PS/2 computer.
How do I enable bidirectional support on my printer?
Follow these steps to enable bidirectional support:Press “Windows key + X” and click on “Control Panel”.Click on “Devices and Printers”.Right click on your printer and click on “Printer Properties”.Click on “Ports tab”.Make sure to check the box “Enable Bidirectional Support” (Enable Bidirectional Support).
What does bidirectional mean on a printer setting?
bidirectional printing Printing in which the print head prints in both directions (bidirectionally) from left to right and then right to left. This increases the print speed but may reduce precise vertical alignment.
Where is enable bidirectional support?
Select your product and click Manage. Click Printer properties. Select the Ports tab. Select the Enable bidirectional support checkbox and click OK.
Which printers are bidirectional?
Printing Process Modern inkjet printers are typically bi-directional, although the print head moves by area rather than by line -- any given "pass" in either direction could print a whole line, half of a line or multiple lines at once.
Why is my Canon printer not responding?
Your printer may not be responding because you're using a wrong printer driver or it's out of date. To see if that's the case for you, you should update your Canon printer driver. If you don't have the time, patience or skills to update your driver manually, you can do it automatically with Driver Easy.
What is the difference between bidirectional and unidirectional printing?
Unidirectional Printing. Your printer is designed to maximize speed by printing alternately from the left and right (bidirectional printing), rather than by moving the printhead back to the left margin so that each line prints from left to right (unidirectional printing).
How do I stop my Epson printer from being bidirectional?
Turn off bidirectional printingIn Server Manager: On the sidebar, click Printers, and select a printer. In the printer's tree view, select a media. On the Media tab, expand the Media Configuration panel.Under Print direction, select Switch to unidirectional.
Why can I not enable bidirectional support?
Locate the ports tab and click on it. Near the bottom of the window, you should see an option that says "enable bidirectional support." Click on the little box next to it. If the option is grayed out or unavailable, bidirectional support may not be available for your printer or computer.
What is bidirectional driver?
The Bidirectional eDirectory driver was designed to make the connection between two connected trees easier in cases where one of the trees did not have an Identity Manager server. This also reduces the licencing burden for customers who do not need Identity Manager in multiple trees.
How do you fix enabled bidirectional communication?
1. Open the [Printers and Faxes] or [Printers] folder. From the [Start] menu, select [Settings] → [Printers]....Bi-directional communication is not enabled.Enable bi-directional communication.Restart the computer.Restart the printer. (Turn off the printer once, wait for 10 seconds or longer, and then turn it on.)
What is print pooling?
Printer pooling is a standard feature of Windows NT, 2000, XP, Vista and Windows 7 that allows a group of printers to share the same name and function as if they were one printer. Printer pooling is used for load balancing.
What does the Bidirectional Support checkbox do?
The setting, found on the Ports tab when looking at the Printer Properties menu in Windows, controls whether a print driver will communicate with the physical printer to determine the printer’s state and find out details like whether a finishing unit is attached. The exact function will vary depending on the make and model of printer.
Managing Bidirectional Support for an individual printer
Open Print Management by pressing Windows key + R, then type printmanagement.msc and hit the enter key.
Managing Bidirectional Support for an entire print server
This method should first come with a dose of caution. If you’ve tested this change on a few printers and decided you want to apply this to all of your printers now, then use the following PowerShell script to disable Bidirectional Support for all printers automatically.
Comments
We were unable to load Disqus. If you are a moderator please see our troubleshooting guide.
Document Data
When you click the "Print" button in an application program, the computer sends document data to a program in Windows called the "spooler." This keeps the data in a temporary holding area until the printer is ready to receive it.
Printer Status Data
The printer sends data to the PC, signaling various kinds of status information, such as the completion of a print job or problems including paper jams, empty paper trays and low laser toner levels.
Effect on Performance
Many hundreds of drivers exist, each one tailored to a specific make and model printer. Sometimes, a particular version of Windows does not work perfectly with a driver, resulting in slow performance and erratic print behavior.
Disabling Bi-Directional Printing
By turning bi-directional printing off, the printer receives documents from the PC, but the driver no longer acts on messages from the printer. Open the "Printers" folder, right-click the icon representing the bi-directional printer, and then select "Properties" from the popup menu that appears.
How to check if my Kodak printer is bidirectional?
To check the bi-directional setting Click on the "Start" button and choose "Printers and Faxes" from the menu. Right-click on your Kodak printer and choose "Properties" from the menu. Choose the "Ports" tab and check the box that says "Enable bi-directional support.". Click "Apply to save your settings.".
How to prevent bi-directional printing?
Check the Firewall. The firewall that is built into many versions of the Windows operating system may prevent bi -directional printing. If you need to have bi-directional printing enabled, be sure to check your firewall settings first. To check the settings for the firewall, click on "Start" and choose "Control Panel.".
What to do if firewall is disabled?
After the firewall has been disabled, the next thing to do is check the current setting for bi-directional printing. In most cases, the bi-directional printing will not be needed, so it may be turned off by default.
Does Techwalla have bi-directional support?
Techwalla may earn compensation through affiliate links in this story. Although most of the time printer users will not need it, bi-directional support is sometimes needed when printing to a Kodak printer.
Description
Set up bidirectional to enable your computer to communicate with your printer.
Solution
This article provides directions for Windows 8, Windows 8.1, Windows 10, Windows 7, Windows Vista, Windows XP, and Windows 2000.
Enable bidirectional support
To learn how to access printer Properties, scroll below to the Windows version used on your computer and follow the instructions:

What Does The Bidirectional Support Checkbox do?
- The setting, found on the Ports tab when looking at the Printer Properties menu in Windows, controls whether a print driver will communicate with the physical printer to determine the printer’s state and find out details like whether a finishing unit is attached. The exact function will vary depending on the make and model of printer. Some print dr...
Managing Bidirectional Support For An Individual Printer
- Open Print Management by pressing Windows key + R, then type printmanagement.mscand hit the enter key.
- Right-click on the printer in question and select Properties…
- Select the Portstab
- Uncheck Enable bidirectional support.
Managing Bidirectional Support For An Entire Print Server
- This method should first come with a dose of caution. If you’ve tested this change on a few printers and decided you want to apply this to all of your printers now, then use the following PowerShell script to disable Bidirectional Support for all printers automatically. If running PowerShell commands on your production print server makes you a bit nervous, then follow our …