Patent ID: 8806072

Claim:
An information processing apparatus comprising: an acquiring unit that acquires, from an external device connected to a connector, identification information that indicates at least a function of the external device; a holding unit that holds a device driver for controlling the external device; and a control unit that controls an assignment of the device driver to the external device connected to the connector in accordance with control information, wherein the holding unit holds at least a generic device driver that performs a process not dependent on the function of the external device, when the control information indicates a first value, the control unit assigns the generic device driver to the external device connected to the connector, when the control information indicates a second value, the control unit performs a first determination for determining whether the holding unit holds a device driver compatible with the function of the external device indicated by the identification information acquired from the external device, when it is determined as a result of the first determination that the holding unit does not hold the device driver, the control unit assigns the generic device driver to the external device, when it is determined as a result of a second determination that model identifying information to identify a model of the external device does not exist in a list, the control unit performs a third determination for determining whether an assignment of the device driver compatible with the function of the external device indicated by the identification information to the external device is permitted, and when it is determined as a result of the third determination that the assignment is not permitted, the control unit assigns the generic device driver to the external device and changes the control information to the first value.