Patent ID: 7703904

Claim:
A printing apparatus comprising: a recording medium interface that accesses information from a recording medium; a printer that performs printing; a non-volatile storage that stores a password, and usage/non-usage designating information indicating whether or not the recording medium interface is used; a usage/non-usage information changing portion that executes a process for changing the usage/non-usage information stored in the non-volatile storage according to an instruction by an operator, only when the operator inputs the password stored in the non-volatile storage; and a controller that executes a direct printing process for reading out the information from the recording medium and allowing contents indicated by the information to be printed by the printer, wherein, when the usage/non-usage information stored in the non-volatile storage is information indicating that the recording medium interface is not used, the controller operates in a state where the controller does not execute a process that access the recording medium interface at all.