Patent ID: 7944575

Claim:
An image forming apparatus that serves as a client coupled to a server through a communication network and includes at least a device for processing data, wherein none of application programs for activating the device are installed in advance, the image forming apparatus comprising: a communicating section to communicate with the server; a device information acquiring section to acquire device information for specifying the device; an information storing section to store server information for specifying the server and client information for specifying the client itself; and a control section to transmit the device information, acquired by the device information acquiring section, and the client information, stored in the information storing section, to the server specified by the server information through the communicating section, in order to request the server to send an application program corresponding to the device information back to the client; wherein, when the control section receives the application program from the server, the control section develops the application program into a storage so as to make the device available.