Patent ID: 7286974

Claim:
In a computing system which includes a host operating system and a virtual PC operating within the host operating system, the virtual PC having a guest operating system and at least one application within the guest operating system, the virtual PC providing a software-created environment which appears to the guest operating system and the at least one application to be an actual PC, a computer-readable storage medium having stored thereon computer-executable instructions that, when executed by a processor of the computing system, cause the computing system to implement a method for requesting that print data be sent from an application of the virtual PC and through the host operating system to a peripheral printer, the method comprising: obtaining print data from an application that executes within the guest operating system of the virtual PC, the guest operating system of the virtual PC being hosted by the host operating system of the computing system; sending the print data from the application within the guest operating system out of the virtual PC and to a host component which executes within the host operating system, wherein the print data is sent out of the virtual PC to the host component without passing through an emulated hardware printer port in the virtual PC; and forwarding the print data from the host component to a peripheral printer connected to host operating system, thereby enabling the peripheral printer to receive the print data in a format which is native to the peripheral printer, and to print the print data.