JP-7855554-B2 - Information processing apparatus and image forming apparatus

JP7855554B2JP 7855554 B2JP7855554 B2JP 7855554B2JP-7855554-B2

Inventors

内田茂生

Assignees

東芝テック株式会社

Dates

Publication Date: 20260508
Application Date: 20230720

Claims (3)

In an information processing device, A storage unit that stores application programs that have been given a trial period, A processor that stops the initial automatic startup of an application program for which the aforementioned trial period is granted upon startup of the information processing device, An information processing device equipped with the following features.
The storage unit stores management information including information indicating whether or not the initial startup of the application program has not yet been performed. If the information processing device starts up and the application program has not yet been started for the first time according to the management information, the processor stops the automatic startup of the application program. The information processing apparatus according to claim 1.
In an image forming apparatus equipped with a printer that forms an image on a medium, A storage unit that stores application programs that have been given a trial period, A processor that stops the initial automatic startup of an application program for which the aforementioned trial period is granted upon startup of the image forming apparatus, An image forming apparatus equipped with the following features.

Description

Embodiments of the present invention relate to an information processing apparatus and an image forming apparatus. Image forming equipment such as digital multifunction printers may have firmware containing application programs (hereinafter referred to as "applications") installed during the manufacturing process. This firmware installed during the manufacturing process is sometimes called a SYSROM. Applications included with the SYSROM can be either manually launched (requiring user intervention) or automatically launched (automatic launch). Some applications included with the SYSROM offer a free trial period. For applications with a trial period, a trial license is created upon first launch, and the trial period countdown begins. On the other hand, information processing devices such as digital multifunction printers are sometimes provided to users after being set up by a worker with specialized knowledge following manufacturing. During this setup, applications included in the SYSTEM ROM are installed on the device, and automatically starting applications are launched. Therefore, if a trial period is set for the automatically starting applications, a trial license is issued during the setup by the worker. In such cases, the trial period for the applications is effectively shortened due to the time lag between the worker's setup and the user's start of use. Japanese Patent Publication No. 2019-207494 Figure 1 shows an example of the configuration of an image forming apparatus as an information processing device according to an embodiment.Figure 2 is a diagram illustrating an example of the process from the time the image forming apparatus, which serves as an information processing device according to the embodiment, is provided to the user.Figure 3 is a flowchart illustrating an example of firmware installation operation in an image forming apparatus according to this embodiment.Figure 4 is a flowchart illustrating an example of application installation in the normal startup mode after unpacking in the image forming apparatus according to this embodiment.Figure 5 shows an example of management information for managing applications in an image forming apparatus according to this embodiment.Figure 6 is a flowchart illustrating an example of the operation of the application startup check in the image forming apparatus according to the embodiment.Figure 7 is a flowchart illustrating an example of the operation when an application set to manual startup is launched in the image forming apparatus according to the embodiment. The embodiments will be described below with reference to the drawings. In the following embodiment, a digital multifunction printer (MFP), which is an example of an image forming apparatus as an information processing device, will be described. Figure 1 is a block diagram showing an example configuration of a digital multifunction device 1 as an information processing device according to an embodiment. As shown in Figure 1, the digital multifunction device 1 includes a system control unit 11, an input device 12, a display device 13, a scanner 14, and a printer 15, among other things. The input device 12 is a device for inputting operation instructions and the like. The input device 12 supplies a signal indicating the content of the input instruction to the system control unit 11. The display device 13 is a device that displays images. The display device 13 displays images in response to instructions from the system control unit 11. The input device 12 and the display device 13 are composed of, for example, a display device with a touch panel. The scanner 14 scans the document placed on the document glass and acquires an image of the document. For example, the scanner 14 includes a light-emitting element and a photoelectric converter. The light-emitting element emits light towards the surface of the document placed on the document glass. The photoelectric converter includes a light-receiving element (such as a CCD image sensor) that receives light from the document surface and converts it into electronic data. The printer 15 is an image forming device that forms an image on a sheet, which serves as a recording medium. The printer 15 forms the image on the sheet according to instructions from the system control unit 11. The image forming method of the printer 15 is not limited to a specific method; it may be an electrophotographic method, an inkjet method, or a thermal transfer method. The system control unit 11 performs various information processing tasks and comprehensively controls the operation of each component. In the configuration example shown in Figure 1, the system control unit 11 includes a processor 21, ROM 22, RMA 23, storage unit 24, communication interface (I/F) 25, input interface (I/F) 26, display interface (I/F) 27, scanner IF 28, and printer IF 29, among others. The processor 21 performs various information processing tasks and comprehensively controls the operation of each