How Winkie works
Winkie is two things: a wizard that sets things up once, and a Windows service that stays. Here is what they do, for whoever needs to know what goes on a PC.
How it works
- 1
Download and install
A signed installer for Windows 10 and 11. It asks for permission once and leaves the Winkie service on the PC, which receives the scans and keeps an eye on the address.
- 2
Activate and configure
Scan the QR with your phone, or enter the licence email and serial. Winkie creates the scan folder and adds the destination to the printer’s address book.
- 3
Scan
Press “Scan” on the printer: the file lands in the folder. Winkie sees it, and only then counts one use. If something is wrong, diagnostics say what, not “generic error”.
And when the PC changes IP address
The service notices and rewrites the destination on the printer with the new address. With nobody logged in, without restarting anything. The panel says «indirizzo aggiornato» (address updated).
The path of a scan
- The printer opens an FTP connection to the PC, on port 21021, with the user Winkie wrote into its address book.
- The Winkie service answers only the configured printers: any other address, even with the right password, is refused and noted.
- The file lands in the scan folder. Ricoh printers transfer in active mode (PORT: the service connects back to the printer for the data); Kyocera printers in passive mode (PASV), on ports 21100–21199.
- In the Winkie panel each printer shows its last contact: a scan received, a refused login, a connection without a file.
Why FTP and not a shared folder
Many multifunction printers from a few years ago write to shared folders with SMB1, which Windows 10 and 11 no longer install. Newer ones speak SMB2 and SMB3, but since version 24H2 Windows 11 Pro also requires SMB signing, which many firmwares do not do. The same printers have always been able to send over FTP.
With FTP there is no shared folder, no Windows user for the printer and nothing to change in SMB on the PC: Windows sharing stays as it is, SMB1 stays off.
There is one FTP user per PC, created by Winkie, and it can write only to the scan folder. Its password and the printer’s administrator password are sealed in the service with Windows data protection and never leave the PC.
FTP is not encrypted: the scan travels in the clear, but it stays on your network, from the printer to the PC. That is why the service accepts only the configured printers and the firewall rule admits only their addresses.
When the PC changes address
The service notices the address change on the network adapter, without waiting for a scan to fail.
It rewrites the destination on every printer with the new address: on Ricoh in the address book through the udirectory interface, on Kyocera through the Command Center RX forms, as the web panel would. The entry is recognised by its name, so it survives every rewrite.
It works with nobody logged in and without restarting anything. If a printer is off or its address book is busy, it keeps retrying until it succeeds, across restarts too.
The Winkie panel says «indirizzo aggiornato» (address updated).
What it writes into the printer
One destination in the address book, with the name you choose in the wizard (the same on every printer of the PC): FTP, the PC’s IP address, port 21021, path and FTP user.
Nothing else: the other address-book entries and the printer’s settings are left alone. The wizard recognises the make from the address, without logging in, and stops before writing anything if the configuration is not one that has been verified.
If you uninstall Winkie, the destination stays on the printer and you delete it from the panel.
What it installs on the PC
The Winkie service (LocalSystem), which receives the scans and keeps an eye on the address; the panel and the notification-area icon, which run without privileges.
One Windows firewall rule for the service, limited to the addresses of the configured printers. Administrator rights are needed only to install and for «Ripara firewall» (repair firewall).
No FileZilla, no shared folders, no extra Windows user. If the FileZilla of an earlier setup is still on the PC, the wizard points it out.
What leaves the PC
The licence check, the update check (you install updates yourself, with one click) and, unless you turn it off, anonymous telemetry: versions, counts, warning names. Never documents, file names, addresses, names or passwords.
Requirements
- Windows 10 or 11, 64-bit.
- A Ricoh or Kyocera multifunction printer on the same network as the PC, with the web panel’s administrator user.
- Internet on the PC to activate the licence.
The numbers
- FTP control port 21021; passive ports 21100–21199, outside Windows’ dynamic range.
- Active and passive modes: Ricoh uses PORT, Kyocera PASV.
- Ricoh: the address book over SOAP on the web panel’s udirectory interface, with exclusive sessions always closed. Kyocera: the Command Center RX forms over https.
- One licence per PC, as many printers as you like on the same PC.
The Winkie program is in Italian for now; English and the other languages of this site are on the roadmap. Roadmap