1. An image processing apparatus, comprising: an image processing hardware including at least one of a printer unit and a scanner unit; one or more image processing application that processes images using the image processing hardware; an operating system; and a user information control program that are commonly accessed and used by the one or more image processing application, the user information control program running on the operating system, wherein the user information control program, in response to reception of a request from a particular image processing application, provides the particular Image processing application with user Information corresponding to the request.