By using this site, you agree to our Privacy Policy and our Terms of Use. Close
Zkuq 22 hours ago
Edit Thread
JEMC said:

Haunted printers turning on by themselves and printing nonsense has to be one of my favorite Windows 11 bugs ever
https://www.pcgamer.com/software/operating-systems/haunted-printers-turning-on-by-themselves-and-printing-nonsense-has-to-be-one-of-my-favorite-windows-11-bugs-ever/
Word to the wise, you might want to avoid Windows 11 23H2 update KB5050092 (Microsoft sure knows how to name 'em!) for now. Turns out, it can cause USB printers to start spouting pages with random gibberish, sorry "unusual characters". Obviously, if you're into the idea of a printergeist animating itself at 3am and graunching away on its ink supply, then maybe you might want to actively seek out the update

This is, it seems, the isolated observation of a loan Redditor or whatever, but the official stance of Microsoft itself as posted on its "Learn" website for logging known issues with Windows.

In an update titled, "USB printers might print random text with the January 2025 preview update," Microsoft says, "you might observe issues with USB connected dual-mode printers that support both USB Print and IPP Over USB protocols," after installing the KB5050092 update for Windows 11 23H2 builds.

Microsoft goes on to explain, "you might observe that the printer unexpectedly prints random text and data, including network commands and unusual characters."

Windows and USB... Not sure if I've mentioned it here (I probably have), but my PC has at least once woken from sleep mode on its own. The cause was a USB device - probably not any 'real' USB device (e.g. mouse), mind you, but something Windows considers a USB device because reasons. It's probably happened more often too, with Windows returning to sleep mode later, but I randomly caught it in the act. My old PC also had a similar issue, which I fixed by disabling the USB device, but I haven't bothered to identify the USB device with this PC because Windows really doesn't want to make it too easy. Anyway, like I said, Windows and USB - apparently not a great combination.

I can't wait for Microsoft to perhaps push me over to Linux with Windows 12. I've said it before and I'll say it again: gaming is the only thing keeping me using Windows. (That said, I use Ubuntu at work, and I wouldn't really recommend it to anyone.)