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Unexplained Printer Issues

If your printers suddenly stopped working in June 2020 without any obvious cause, you weren't alone. A Windows update released on June 9, 2020 broke printing functionality across Windows 10 and some Windows Server operating systems, causing widespread frustration for IT teams.

The Problem​

After installing certain June 2020 Windows updates, printers would mysteriously fail to print. The Print Spooler service would throw errors or crash unexpectedly when users tried to print, and no output would come from the affected printers. According to Microsoft, "certain printers might fail to print" after installing these updates—which turned out to be an understatement for many environments.

Sophos documented the issue shortly after it surfaced, helping raise awareness about the problem.

The Resolution​

Microsoft has since released subsequent patches that fix the printing issues introduced in the June 9th updates. If you're still experiencing these problems, check whether your systems have the problematic patches installed:

If these patches are present, install the latest cumulative updates from Microsoft to get the fixes. The corrected updates restore normal printing functionality without requiring any ScrewDrivers-specific configuration changes.

Preventing Future Issues​

This incident highlights the importance of testing Windows updates in a non-production environment before deploying them broadly. While most updates install without issues, occasionally one slips through Microsoft's testing that can disrupt critical functionality like printing. If you can stage updates and test them with your ScrewDrivers environment first, you'll catch these problems before they affect your users.