Windows 11 Kills Printers?
If you’ve been tinkering with Windows machines for long enough you’ve learned one thing: printer drivers and support has always been that thing nobody really enjoys dealing with - wastes your time, causes headaches, and the drama it causes, you often just end up buying a new one.
So, when the next big Windows 11 update started making headlines with claims that it could “kill your printer,” it immediately grabbed attention. If you are running older hardware that still does a job without any drama, you might be in for a surprise. It’s not a straightforward story but has some layers and nuance. There are some real practical meaning for businesses and everyday computer users.
The background is this: Microsoft has been steadily moving away from the older printer driver technologies known as V3 and V4 printer drivers. These are legacy (for older computer) drivers that have been around for a very long time and that lots of older printers rely on. Many of these kind of drivers that used to be pushed through Windows Update years ago. Microsoft formally announced the deprecation of these drivers back in 2023 and the plan has been slowly rolling out ever since.
Now we’re in 2026, and the latest Windows updates, starting with the January 2026 non-security update, no longer include new V3/V4 printer drivers via Windows Update. That’s the part that sparked a lot of interest in computer circles and has been highlighted in places like Wonderful Engineering claiming this could “kill your printer”.
Let’s look at what’s actually going on, because the reality is more sensible than clickbait headlines make it sound.
First, Microsoft isn’t purposely walking around unplugging perfectly fine printers overnight. What they’ve done now is stop Windows Update from automatically pushing new legacy driver packages for these older models. The drivers themselves haven’t disappeared from the system immediately, and in many cases, existing printers will still continue to work for some time on your computer, because the drivers are already installed on your machine. It’s just that Windows Update won’t be handing out new ones automatically anymore.
So, if you’ve got a printer from 6-15 years ago and it uses one of those old drivers — sure, that device is in the “at risk” category because automatic support through Windows Update is going away. But you don’t literally have a dead computer printer sitting next to your PC. It doesn’t need to be repaired or fixed. What’s happened is Microsoft is changing the way drivers are distributed and serviced.
For most of us, especially if the printer is modern, say within 3 years, you’re not going to notice any difference. That’s because most newer printers already use updated driver stacks or built-in standards like IPP and Mopria, which Windows supports out of the box without legacy wrappers. (In fact, newer printers are increasingly driver-less anyway.) The troubles hit the people running older equipment, laptops, computers, desktops etc like small businesses, schools, or home offices that still rock an old multifunction device because it just works and there’s no budget for a replacement yet. Why replace what’s not broken?
Let’s be real: that’s a totally normal situation and happens regularly. I still see offices rocking decade-old HPs or Canon laser printers because the hardware is solid, ink or toner is cheap, pages print fast, and nobody wants the hassle of replacing a device that still works. But with this update, the support channel shifts. You now need to get drivers directly from the manufacturer if they’re available, rather than relying on Windows Update to automatically install them.
If no updated drivers exist from the manufacturer? That’s where things get tricky. You’re left with a decision:
- Do you delay that Windows update until you’re ready?
- Do you hunt down a driver manually?
- Or do you finally bite the bullet and invest in a new printer that has modern support?
There’s no shame in the last option. Computer and printer technology moves forward and sometimes the cost of continuing to patch an old workflow ends up exceeding the cost of the replacement hardware.
From a security perspective, Microsoft actually has a point here. Legacy drivers, especially older kernel-mode ones like V3/V4, have been a chronic source of trouble, not just for stability but for security too. Vulnerabilities like PrintNightmare showed how exploiting the print stack could lead to serious breaches. By tightening this up and moving towards a more standards-based system, Windows becomes more secure and predictable.
But I’ll say this clearly: this isn’t great news if you’ve got working printers that are suddenly harder to support. There’s a real cost here for people and businesses operating on shoestring budgets. No one woke up thinking “I want to change printer drivers today,” and yet here we are.
The key takeaway from all of this is this:
Printers aren’t dying, but the way Windows handles driver support for older printers is changing. You’ll need to be proactive if you’re still on legacy hardware. Get your tech to update drivers manually, check support pages from Canon/HP/Epson. For many, the easiest move is to upgrade to a printer with modern, supported drivers, because whether we like it or not, the legacy world is being phased out.
And just so there’s no confusion: if your printer has modern driver support or works with built-in Windows printing technologies, you’re fine. This change mostly affects equipment that hasn’t had driver updates in years and that relies on old driver models that Microsoft no longer wants to ship via Windows Update.
From where I sit, it’s a classic example of tech companies balancing backward compatibility with forward progress. It’s frustrating for anyone caught in the middle, but it’s not a flat-out end of printer support, it’s just a turning point that forces us to keep up to date with how devices are maintained in the Windows ecosystem.
Before you hit the Windows Update button and think Windows is coming to kill your printer – don’t worry. Check your drivers, talk to your printer vendor, and make a plan. If you need help – give us a call.