HP
Earlier this month, Microsoft posted a brand new entry in its listing of identified points with totally up-to-date Windows 11 PCs: The HP Smart printer app was installing routinely on Windows 10 and Windows 11 PCs whether they had an HP printer put in or not, altering the names and icons of their related printers and inflicting error messages.
Affected PCs will normally seem to have an HP LaserJet M101-M106 related, so search for that mannequin quantity in your listing of printers (individuals who really personal a type of HP LaserJets presumably will not have issues). All variations of Windows 11 are affected, plus all presently supported variations of Windows 10; Windows Server variations going again to 2012 can be affected.
Microsoft continues to look into the problem, however in an replace posted yesterday, the corporate said unambiguously that HP was not guilty. The firm additionally says that the majority printers ought to proceed to work tremendous, and that they “will proceed to make use of the anticipated drivers for printer operations.” But in case your printer depends on a third-party app for extra performance, which may be damaged.
The approach that print drivers work has modified lots in the previous few years, one thing that in all probability partially explains each the undesirable app set up and the truth that primary printing ought to principally proceed to work.
Rather than utilizing bespoke drivers, fashionable printers related to computer systems working fashionable OSes principally use a generic driver constructed on high of the Internet Printing Protocol (IPP). This prevents issues triggered through the use of previous proprietary printer drivers with a contemporary OS and in addition permits working methods that may’t set up proprietary print drivers (like iOS) to make use of printers anyway. These generic drivers have been profitable sufficient that Microsoft is slowly deprecating legacy print drivers solely.
To add further printer-specific performance, then, printer producers now must do it in separate apps like HP Smart, which increase the core performance offered by the generic driver. Microsoft calls these Print Support Apps. When you join a brand new printer to Windows, it is going to normally obtain that app and set up it routinely, the identical approach that Windows Update routinely tries to put in drivers for brand new GPUs, webcams, or different equipment the primary time you join them.
It’s possible that no matter bug is inflicting the issue made these PCs imagine they had an HP printer related, after which Windows labored the best way it is designed to work and downloaded the HP printer app because of this. The questions are: What triggered this bug? Can it additionally trigger different issues? And can it’s rolled again in order that the HP app disappears and everybody’s printers return to trying and dealing the best way they’re speculated to? Microsoft will hopefully have solutions for some or all of those quickly.