If a Windows update made your printer act strangely, Microsoft has a fix for you
Recent updates for Windows 10 and Windows 11 had the peculiar side effect of causing printers to spew out random printouts. The culprits were the updates released back in January, although it took Microsoft a while to concede that there was a problem.
Having acknowledged the issue, Microsoft has finally produced a fix some two months after the problems emerged.
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When Microsoft acknowledged the issue, it said: “After installing the January 2025 Windows preview update, released January 29, 2025, or later updates, you might observe issues with USB connected dual-mode printers that support both USB Print and IPP Over USB protocols. You might observe that the printer unexpectedly prints random text and data, including network commands and unusual characters. Resulting from this issue, the printed text might often start with the header "POST /ipp/print HTTP/1.1", followed by other IPP (Internet Printing Protocol) related headers”.
The initial solution was a Known Issue Rollback (KIR), but this was too late for some people. Now there is a proper fix.
In an update to the issue on the Release Health page, Microsoft says:
This issue was resolved by Windows updates released March 25, 2025, and later. We recommend you install the latest update for your device as it contains important improvements and issue resolutions, including this one.
Windows 10 users need to grab the KB5053643 update, while for Windows 11 users it is the KB5053657 update. Be warned, however, both are preview versions of updates.
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