I Can Print Again

This story starts with PrintNightmare. That's a long and arduous journey that isn't over.

But one of the side effects is that Microsoft's attempts to fix PrintNightmare has impacted Windows printing for months.

Printing to a direct connected printer hasn't been a problem (yet) but printing to a "server" connected printer has been impacted.

At my house, I have a Windows 10 Pro computer with a USB attached color laser printer. Each of my other PCs have this printer mapped across the network.

This has worked perfectly for YEARS - until August 2021's Patch Tuesday.

Then my PCs couldn't print to the shared printer.

But Microsoft couldn't let this situation persist, could they?

I waited until September's Patch Tuesday but I still couldn't print.

I took to Google and found a Registry hack that got me printing again.

Then after October's Patch Tuesday I couldn't print again.

But Microsoft couldn't let this situation persist, could they?

I waited until November's Patch Tuesday but I still couldn't print.

Again, I took to Google and found a Registry hack that got me printing again.

This time the workaround was in Bleeping Computer. grumpyoldadmin posted the following Registry hack from Microsoft for the November Patch Tuesday "fix."

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00




[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Policies\Microsoft\FeatureManagement\Overrides] "713073804"=dword:00000000 

And that worked. There're specific hacks for the various versions of Windows 10. But if you read grumpyoldadmin's post, he notes that Microsoft also informed him that this change will need to be backed out once the December "fix" is released.

At this point, I'll take what I can get.

PS. Phil_Psdp commented:

For M$ to come up with entries to disable specific "features" in these updates certainly implies a deeper knowledge of the consequences than they are admitting

Aaarg!