Latest / The Windows Podcast with Fexingo: Microsoft, PC, and Enterprise Windows Conversations / Windows 11 Is Killing Enterprise USB Printers
Transcript
- Lucas: There's a quiet but nasty change in Windows 11 24H2 that's going to catch a lot of enterprise IT teams off guard — Microsoft is removing the legacy USB printer class driver. Luna: Wait — the generic driver that's been in Windows since, what, Windows 2000? Lucas: Exactly. The driver is called usbprint.sys, and it's been part of every Windows installation for well over twenty years. It's the fallback that lets any USB printer — even one with no vendor driver installed — at least be recognized and print basic pages. Luna: And they're killing it in 24H2? That's the current feature update, right? Lucas: That's right. As of the June 2026 preview update, fresh installs of Windows 11 24H2 no longer include usbprint.sys. If you upgrade from an earlier version, the driver stays — but if you do a clean deployment, which a lot of enterprises do when they refresh hardware, the printer just won't work. Luna: So what does Microsoft say users should do instead? Lucas: Their official guidance is to use the vendor's own driver — which sounds reasonable until you realize that hundreds of older printers, especially specialty ones like label printers, receipt printers, and barcode printers, either never had a Windows 11 driver or the vendor has gone out of business. Lucas: And listen, if today's conversation gave you something usable — maybe it saves you a weekend of printer troubleshooting — consider buying us a coffee. That's buy me a coffee dot com slash fexingo. No pressure, but it keeps the show ad-free and lets us dig into these niche enterprise topics. Luna: Yeah, I think we all know the pain of a printer that just won't work. For the price of a latte, it's a nice way to say thanks. Lucas: So back to those orphaned printers — I was talking to an IT director at a regional hospital group last week, and this hit them hard. Luna: What were they using? Lucas: Patient wristband printers. These are small thermal printers made by a company called Zebra — they print the barcode wristbands patients wear. Zebra does have Windows 11 drivers, but the hospital was running a specific legacy model, the ZD500, which Zebra stopped supporting three years ago. There is no 24H2 driver for it. Luna: And because they did a clean OS install as part of a hardware refresh — new Dell OptiPlex machines — usbprint.sys wasn't there. So the printer would show as an unknown device. Lucas: Exactly. Device Manager sees it, but there's no driver to bind. And because the hospital's deployment image is locked down, they can't just sideload an old driver — even if they could find one that works. Luna: How did they solve it? Lucas: They ended up putting the ZD500 on a dedicated Windows 10 machine that they keep air-gapped just for printing wristbands. It's a hack, but it works. The bigger point is that Microsoft is essentially forcing a hardware refresh cycle for any usb only printer that relies on that generic class driver. Luna: And this isn't just hospitals. Think about warehouses running old Intermec label printers, or retail stores with Epson receipt printers from 2015. Lucas: Right. The Epson TM-T88 series is everywhere in retail and food service. Many of those models have no native Windows 11 driver — they relied entirely on usbprint.sys. After a clean 24H2 install, they're paperweights. Luna: So what are the workarounds besides keeping old machines around? Lucas: One option is ipp over usb, which is the Internet Printing Protocol tunneled over USB. Windows 11 still supports IPP class drivers, and some newer printers can switch to that mode. But it requires the printer firmware to support it, and most older printers don't. Luna: Another option is to network-share the printer. If you have one Windows 10 machine that still has the driver, you can share the printer over the network and have the 24H2 machines print to it via TCP/IP. Lucas: That works, but it introduces a single point of failure. If that Windows 10 machine goes down, nobody in that department can print. And in a hospital, that's not acceptable. Luna: What about third-party universal print drivers? I know companies like Seagull Scientific make a driver that works with hundreds of label printers. Lucas: That's actually the best bet for specialty printers. Seagull's BarTender driver, for example, bundles its own USB stack and doesn't rely on usbprint.sys. But it's not free — you're looking at several hundred dollars per license. For a company with fifty label printers, that adds up fast. Luna: So Microsoft's argument is that removing the legacy driver improves security and reduces the attack surface — but the practical effect is a tax on anyone with older peripherals. Lucas: And 'older' here could mean perfectly functional hardware from 2019. This isn't like dropping support for a parallel port printer from 1998. Some of these devices are less than seven years old and still have years of useful life. Luna: Do we know if Microsoft plans to offer the driver as an optional component, like a Feature on Demand? Lucas: There's been no announcement. And given that they've been trying to modernize the print stack for years — deprecating the old Point and Print behavior, pushing IPP — I think this is a deliberate move to force adoption of newer printers that support the modern stack. Luna: It's a classic enterprise IT squeeze: you can upgrade your OS, or you can keep your printers, but not both without extra cost or complexity. Lucas: Exactly. And the worst part is that many IT teams won't discover this until they've already deployed 24H2 to a pilot group. Then suddenly the shipping department can't print labels, and they're scrambling for a workaround. Luna: So what's your advice to an IT manager listening right now? Lucas: Audit your USB printers now. Identify every model that doesn't have a native Windows 11 driver from the vendor. If they rely on the generic class driver, you need a plan — either budget for replacement printers, budget for third-party drivers, or plan to keep some machines on Windows 10 for as long as possible. Luna: And Windows 10 goes end of life in October 2025, so that's not a long-term solution. Lucas: Right. So this is really a hardware refresh decision that Microsoft is making for you. You can delay it, but eventually you'll have to replace those printers or pay for a driver licensing subscription. Luna: It feels like a pattern at this point — Microsoft removing something that worked fine and telling you to buy new hardware. We saw it with the Start Menu changes, with the TPM 2.0 requirement, and now with printers. Lucas: It's consistent with their broader strategy of 'modern Windows' — which means a smaller, more secure kernel with fewer legacy compatibility shims. I get the security argument, but the transition cost is landing on enterprises, not on Microsoft. Luna: And there's no warning banner during setup saying 'your USB printer may not work after this upgrade.' Lucas: No. You find out when you plug it in and nothing happens. That's the kind of surprise that makes IT managers dread update Tuesday. Luna: So to sum up: check your printer fleet, especially specialty printers from vendors that may not be around or may not have updated drivers. If you rely on the generic USB print driver, start planning now. Lucas: And if you've already been bitten by this, I'd love to hear how you worked around it. Reach out to us — we might feature your solution in a future episode. Luna: That's a wrap for this week. Next time, we're looking at a change in how Windows handles DNS encryption in enterprise environments — and why it might break your internal name resolution. Lucas: See you then.