Microsoft Confirms A Windows 10 Update Is Breaking USB Printers, Attempt These Workarounds
On: July 27, 2022
Two days in the past, I used to be at my cousin’s residence making an attempt to troubleshoot a Brother laser printer that might not work. The printer was duplicated a number of occasions within the Windows “Printers & Scanners” dialog, and troubleshooting needed to go so far as eradicating all the print units, whereas rebooting a number of occasions, earlier than lastly reinstalling the newest driver, upon which level, lo & behold, it labored. Even Brother’s personal driver removing instrument would not work accurately.
It seems that almost definitely none of that was Brother’s fault. We had been shocked on the time, as a result of Brother historically makes superb {hardware} with flawless software program, and nobody within the author’s in-group had ever heard of a problem like this with a Brother printer. HP? Epson? Sure. Brother? No approach. Naturally, the perpetrator is in actual fact a Windows Update.
Indeed, Microsoft has added a brand new merchandise to the checklist of identified points in Windows 10, model 21H1, and it has to do with USB-connected printers. The difficulty says “Printing to USB-connected printers might fail,” and
describes precisely the signs above: duplicated entries for the printers, and a failure to print from functions that describe the printer by identify.
There’s no patch for the issue but, as Microsoft continues to be making an attempt to work out precisely why it occurs. On that be aware, should you’re having this difficulty, Microsoft needs you to report it utilizing their Feedback Hub app, though do be suggested that you will have to be utilizing a Microsoft account to take action.
In the meantime, you possibly can apparently repair the difficulty by wanting on the Properties of the latest “Copy” of your printer, checking the “Port” that it makes use of, after which altering the unique copy to make use of that “Port” as an alternative. Assuming that works, you possibly can take away the opposite copies of your printer. If that DOESN’T work, because it did not for us, you are able to do what we did: take away each copy of each print gadget, reboot, after which reinstall with the newest driver. That ought to repair it, not less than briefly.
Microsoft says it’s nonetheless investigating the difficulty and can present an update when extra info is offered. Note that this drawback would not appear to have an effect on network-connected printers, so you’re in all probability in a position to work round and keep away from the difficulty completely by connecting your printer to your Ethernet or Wi-Fi community.
