Windows 11 24H2 misery continues, as Microsoft’s buggy update is now breaking printers – especially on Copilot+ PCs
Printers are suddenly not working, drivers are disappearing, and more besides
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Windows 11 24H2is continuing its run oftrouble with bugsand this time we’re hearing about various difficulties with printers, which are mostly hittingArm-based Copilot+ PCs, but also other computers (with x86IntelandAMDchips) too.
Neowinreports that there are quite a number of complaints from those with printers who have upgraded toWindows 1124H2 and are finding their device is no longer working. This is affecting all thebest-known printermanufacturers, the likes of Brother, Canon, HP and so forth.
The issue is mainly being experienced by those with aCopilot+ PCpowered by an Arm processor, as mentioned, and it either completely derails the printer, leaving it non-functional, or breaks certain features. In other cases, Windows 11 users can’t install the printer driver.
As noted at the outset, these gremlins in the works are also hitting standard (non-Arm, Intel and AMD CPU-based) PCs, and there are reports of various printer hiccups, and indeed printers vanishing from these systems, too.
On Reddit, one admin observes in apostabout ‘24H2 problems hitting us hard’ that: “Print queues [are] clogging, that’s if the driver wasn’t randomly deleted from the machine.”
Printers going missing, or the driver being removed, appear to be common themes with 24H2, as well as not being able to install (or reinstall) said printer driver.
Potential workarounds to fix printer installation problems
Microsofthas acknowledged the issue and produced a support document which provides some possible workarounds to get your printer going on an Arm PC.
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The companynotes: “Some Arm PCs (for example, Copilot+ PCs) may not be able to add or install a printer using the included installer or the installer from the manufacturer’s website.”
The first suggestion to get around an installation failure is simply to connect your printer using a USB port.
Otherwise, you can connect the printer by going into the Settings app, thenBluetooth & devices > Printers & scanners, where you select theAdd deviceoption. This then allows you to manually add the printer to your system (hopefully, at any rate).
With any luck, one of these two options will help you get around any inability to install a printer – though there may still be other scenarios where printers are misfiring with Windows 11 24H2 by the sound of things.
All this comes among a raft of issues with Windows 11 24H2, including newIntel Z890 motherboards constantly crashing, drive spacemysteriously vanishing, and alsoTask Manager malfunctioningamongmany other problems. The good news is thatMicrosoft is working on fixing a bunch of these bugs already, but there’s a lot of firefighting to be done.
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Darren is a freelancer writing news and features for TechRadar (and occasionally T3) across a broad range of computing topics including CPUs, GPUs, various other hardware, VPNs, antivirus and more. He has written about tech for the best part of three decades, and writes books in his spare time (his debut novel - ‘I Know What You Did Last Supper’ - was published by Hachette UK in 2013).
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