Microsoft Warns Of More Printing Issues caused By March Updates

Microsoft says that customers might experience additional printing issues besides blue screen crashes after installing Windows 10 updates released earlier this month.

According to Microsoft, these recent Windows 10 updates will cause issues when printing from some apps or when printing to some printers, including missing or solid color graphics, misalignment/formatting issues, or printing blank pages/labels.

“After installing updates released March 9, 2021, or March 15, 2021, you might get unexpected results when printing from some apps,” Microsoft said in an update on the Windows 10 Health Dashboard.

The printing issues highlighted by Microsoft include :

• Elements of the document might print as solid black/color boxes or might be missing, including barcodes, QR codes, and graphics elements, such as logos.
• Table lines might be missing. Other alignment or formatting issues might also be present.
• Printing from some apps or to some printers might result in a blank page or label.

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Affected platforms and problematic updates

Affected platforms include client and server editions of a wide range of Windows versions starting with Windows 7 and up:

• Client: Windows 10, version 20H2; Windows 10, version 2004; Windows 10, version 1909; Windows 10, version 1809; Windows 10 Enterprise LTSC 2019; Windows 10, version 1803; Windows 10 Enterprise LTSC 2016; Windows 10, version 1607; Windows 10 Enterprise 2015 LTSB; Windows 8.1; Windows 7 SP1
• Server: Windows Server, version 20H2; Windows Server, version 2004; Windows Server, version 1909; Windows Server, version 1809; Windows Server 2019; Windows Server, version 1803; Windows Server 2016; Windows Server 2012 R2; Windows Server 2012; Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1; Windows Server 2008 SP2

The cumulative updates causing issues when printing are:

• KB5000802 for Windows 10 2004/20H2 & Windows Server 2004/20H2
• KB5000808 for Windows 10 1909 & Windows Server 1909
• KB5000822 for Windows 10 1809 & Windows Server 2019
• KB5000809 for Windows 10 1803 & Windows Server 1803

Microsoft is working on a fix for these issues and will provide a solution during the coming days.

Ongoing Windows printing issues

These new known issues affecting printing on Windows devices follow the release of multiple out-of-band Windows 10 cumulative updates that fixed a bug causing blue screen crashes when printing.

Despite claiming to fix the crash issues, multiple BleepingComputer readers have reported still experiencing blue screen crashes and some of the problems Redmond mentioned in today’s update.

Microsoft confirmed the known issue causing Windows 10 BSOD crashes after BleepingComputer reported a stream of user complaints regarding system crashes while printing.

Before issuing the OOB updates, Microsoft also provided a temporary fix for the crashes involving a procedure that some customers considered too convoluted.