Latest / The Windows Podcast with Fexingo: Microsoft, PC, and Enterprise Windows Conversations / Windows 11 Is Making Enterprise Network Printers Obsolete
Transcript
- Lucas: If you manage enterprise printers for a living, I have bad news: Windows 11 is quietly making traditional network printers obsolete — not through some dramatic announcement, but through a series of driver and protocol changes that are already locking IT teams out of their own print infrastructure. Luna: I've seen the complaints in IT forums. Admins saying their HP LaserJets on TCP/IP ports just stopped working after the 24H2 update. That's not a bug, is it? Lucas: It's not a bug. It's a deliberate move. Microsoft wants enterprises on Universal Print — their cloud-based print subscription service. And they're making the old way painful enough that migration becomes the path of least resistance. Luna: Before we go deeper — Lucas, this show stays ad-free thanks to listeners who chip in a couple of dollars a month. If today's tech conversation gives you something usable, buy me a coffee dot com slash fexingo — it genuinely keeps these going. Lucas: Yeah, and it's a small thing that makes a big difference for us. So back to print — let's talk about what actually changed. Lucas: The key date is late 2025. Microsoft announced that new printer models would no longer get third-party drivers through Windows Update. They're relying on the Microsoft IPP Class Driver — an industry-standard protocol that only works with printers supporting Internet Printing Protocol. Older network printers don't support it. Luna: So if you bought a new Canon or Xerox multifunction device in 2026, you plug it in and Windows 11 just says 'no driver found'? Lucas: Exactly. Unless the manufacturer has shipped an ipp compatible firmware update — and many haven't. But the bigger issue is the legacy print path. Windows 11 24H2 now blocks installing printers via the old Point and Print model by default. That's how most enterprises deploy network printers — they point to a print server, the driver pushes down automatically, done. Luna: That's been the standard for twenty years. Print server, shared queue, done. Lucas: Right. Microsoft changed the group policy defaults so that Point and Print installations now require explicit admin approval. And for network printers using TCP/IP ports directly, the built-in driver package for many older models has been removed from the Windows 11 image. The result: a lot of 'printer not found' errors. Luna: I want to get concrete. Can we talk about a specific migration case? Lucas: Sure. There's a mid-sized manufacturing firm in Ohio — 500 users — that we worked with indirectly through a partner. They had forty HP LaserJet printers deployed across three buildings, all connected via TCP/IP to a Windows Server 2019 print server. When they tested Windows 11 24H2 on a pilot group, twenty of those printers failed to install. Luna: Twenty out of forty. That's not a pilot — it's a crisis. Lucas: Exactly. Their IT team spent two weeks chasing driver updates. HP had IPP firmware for about half the models, but the other half were too old. They ended up replacing twelve printers and migrating the entire print infrastructure to Universal Print. Total cost: around $47,000 — including new printers, consulting time, and the first year of Universal Print licenses. Luna: Forty-seven thousand dollars because Microsoft decided to deprecate a driver model. Lucas: That's the reality. Now, Microsoft would say they've been signaling this since Windows 10 21H2, when they first warned that Point and Print was being phased out. They even released a compatibility checker tool called the Print Support App Compatibility Checker. But most IT teams didn't run it until things broke. Luna: What does Universal Print actually give you? I've heard it's five dollars per user per month. Lucas: It's included in some Microsoft 365 E3 and E5 plans, but standalone it's $5 per user per month. The pitch is: no print servers, no driver management, no VPN for remote printing. Users authenticate via Azure AD, send a job to the cloud, and the printer pulls it down. But there are catches. Luna: Such as? Lucas: Printers need to be Universal Print-compatible, or you need a connector server on-prem. The connector server is a Windows machine that bridges the cloud and legacy printers. So you haven't fully eliminated your server footprint. Also, Universal Print caps certain job sizes — 1 GB per document — and doesn't support advanced finishing options like stapling or booklet making on some models. Luna: So for a law firm printing thousand-page briefs with duplex and hole punch, Universal Print might not cut it. Lucas: Exactly. It's great for standard office printing — memos, reports, spreadsheets. But specialty print workflows are still a gap. Microsoft is adding features, but as of June 2026, advanced finishing is still hit or miss. Luna: What about the security angle? Microsoft has been pushing the 'reducing attack surface' narrative. Lucas: It's real. The old Point and Print model was a vector for PrintNightmare — the remote code execution vulnerability in 2021 that forced emergency patches. A driver from a compromised print server could deploy malware to every client. Universal Print eliminates that by removing the driver push entirely. The client uses a Microsoft-provided class driver, and the job goes over HTTPS. Luna: So from a security team's perspective, the migration is justified. But from a budget perspective, it's a hard sell. Lucas: It's a capital expense vs. operating expense trade-off. Replacing printers and paying $5 per user per month for 500 users is $30,000 a year. The old print server model had hardware, power, admin labor. But $30,000 a year is real money. Some orgs are delaying by staying on Windows 10, but Windows 10 goes end of support in October 2025 — wait, that's actually October 2025, which is already passed. Luna: Right, we're in June 2026. So any organization still on Windows 10 is already outside support, unless they paid for Extended Security Updates. Lucas: Which many did. But those ESUs run out after three years. So by late 2027, the pressure to move to Windows 11 becomes extreme. And that means the print migration timeline is now or never. Luna: What's the practical advice for an IT admin listening right now? Lucas: First, run Microsoft's Print Support App Compatibility Checker on your fleet. It'll tell you which printers have compatible drivers in Windows 11 24H2. Second, identify which printers can be updated to IPP firmware and which cannot — those will need replacement. Third, pilot Universal Print with a small group. Test your specialty workflows. Luna: And if Universal Print doesn't work for a critical workflow? Lucas: You still have the option of using a third-party print management solution like PaperCut or PrintLogic, which can bridge to Universal Print. But you'll pay for that too. The era of the free print server is over. Microsoft has drawn a line. Luna: I think the broader lesson is that Microsoft is willing to break things to force cloud adoption. Print is just the latest. Lucas: It's exactly that. And the window for planning is closing fast. If you haven't tested Windows 11 with your print environment yet, you're gambling. I'd bet on running the compatibility checker this week. Luna: Yeah. Good advice. And if listeners want to support the show so we keep covering these enterprise IT shifts, you know where to find us. Lucas: Buy me a coffee dot com slash fexingo. Thanks for being here.