It’s a little complicated, but it should solve your printing woes.

The latest Windows 10 update didn’t play ball with some printers, causing a blue screen of death (BSOD) to occur every time you tried to print something out. If your PC has caught this nasty bug, you’ll be pleased to know that Microsoft has released a temporary fix to get your printer back in business.

Microsoft’s Temporary Fix for Windows 10’s Printer Problems

If you missed the beginning of this story, it all began when a Windows 10 update began causing printer issues. It didn’t affect every printer, but users complained that Kyocera, Ricoh, and Zebra-brand printers would now cause their computers to BSOD when they tried to print a document.

Now, a Microsoft spokesperson approached Bleeping Computer with a statement on this predicament. Microsoft knows that when you try to print something out after the latest update, “you might receive an APC_INDEX_MISMATCH error with a blue screen.”

The Redmond company is quick to note that”We are working to resolve an issue impacting a subset of customers using certain printers,” which is excellent news for those affected by this nasty bug.

Fixing the Windows 10 Printer Bug

If you don’t want the update on your computer anymore, you can uninstall it from your PC and get your printer back in working order. We covered how to do this in our article, which we’ve linked above.

However, if you’d rather keep the update, there are two ways to avoid angering the bug, depending on the program you’re printing from and your operating system.

If You’re Printing From a 32-bit Program on a 64-Bit PC

First, you need to open up the command prompt in elevated mode. To do this, press Start, type CMD, then right-click Command Prompt, and select Run as Administrator.

Once it’s open, check if your printer has Direct Printing enabled by typing rundll32 printui.dll,PrintUIEntry /Xg /n followed by your printer’s name.

If it isn’t, proceed to type rundll32 printui.dll,PrintUIEntry /Xs /n NAME attributes +direct where “NAME” is the name of your printer.

If You’re Printing From a 32-Bit Program on a 32-Bit PC or a 64-Bit Program on a 64-Bit PC

Things get a little complicated if you’re not printing from a 32-bit program on a 64-bit machine. It involves using the Application Compatibility Toolkit to install a PrinterIsolationAware fix. Fortunately, Microsoft has released an in-depth tutorial on how to do this, so be sure to visit the original article linked above to watch it.

Solving the Splinter With Your Printer

If you’ve been having printer problems after the recent Windows 10 update, Microsoft is working on a fix. For now, you can either uninstall the update or fiddle around with the settings to get yourself printing once more.

If BSODs fill you with dread and confusion, why not learn how to fix them yourself? A BSOD will usually give you enough information to isolate what’s causing a crash and help you make an educated guess as to what the culprit is.

Image Credit: iPhotoDesign / Shutterstock.com

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