Patent ID: 7194218

Claim:
An image forming apparatus comprising: a connection condition detecting portion for detecting a condition of connection with a peripheral device to the image forming apparatus; an identification information acquiring portion for acquiring identification information for identifying the peripheral device when the connection condition detecting portion detects that the peripheral device is connected; a control program receiving portion for transmitting the acquired identification information to a server connected to a network, and receiving a program for controlling the peripheral device from the server; a rewritable nonvolatile memory; a writing portion for writing the received control program into the memory; and transmitting portion for transmitting to the server the received identification information and the system requirements data stored in the memory when the connection condition detecting portion detects that the connected peripheral device is disconnected, wherein the control program receiving portion receives system requirements data of the peripheral device together with the control program, and the writing portion writes the received system requirements data into the memory, and wherein the writing portion writes the system requirements data of the peripheral device detected to be connected, into an area in which system requirements data of the disconnected peripheral device is stored.