Comment by cwillu

Comment by cwillu 20 hours ago

10 replies

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“[Print] To meet security goals and support new print capabilities, this update transitions Windows printing components from MSVCRT to a modern Universal C Runtime Library.

As a result of this change, print clients running versions of Windows prior to Windows 10, version 2004 and Windows Server, version 2004 (Build number 19041) will intentionally fail to print to remote print servers running Windows 11, versions 24H2 or 25H2, and Windows Server 2025, that have installed this update, or later updates. Attempting to print from an unsupported print client to an updated print server will fail with one of the following errors: ”

Wow.

wrs 20 hours ago

You stopped quoting too soon; the best part is the error message that straight-up lies! “The printer driver is not installed on this computer.” Absolutely classic Windows right there.

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antiloper 19 hours ago

Apart from the obvious compatibility disaster, what kind of skeletons does Microsoft have in their printing system that the choice of C library creates those compatibility issues in the first place?

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  • stackskipton 19 hours ago

    Print Spooler has had some bad security vulnerabilities. Example: https://www.cisa.gov/news-events/alerts/2021/06/30/printnigh...

    I don’t know if this C library helps mitigate this but Print Spooler is not “it just works” either.

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    • vintagedave 11 hours ago

      The UCRT is just the newer, Windows-component version of the MSVCRT, the one they’re worried about. It’s even available for XP.

      > will intentionally fail to print to remote print servers

      Why would a more secure local print driver refuse to talk to _remote_ print servers? What is so untrustable about what comes over the wire, and if it is, how can they trust the print server is or is not one is claims to be and can be talked to?

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  • tonyedgecombe 19 hours ago

    My guess is it’s riddled with vulnerabilities. I used to write some print management software and found it very easy to crash the spooler just from routine API calls.

    Not only that but it seemed every time they fixed a vulnerability some piece of functionality broke.

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ddalex 20 hours ago

What happened to "always maintain compatibility" ?

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  • jfindper 19 hours ago

    Typically there's always been an implicit "unless the security risk is wild".

    Even though it's in-fashion to hate them, Microsoft has been pretty amazing at keeping compatibility. This one is pretty painful, but I really don't think they're doing it just to fuck with people or force you onto Windows 11 (as some people seem to think).

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  • wolpoli 19 hours ago

    Windows 10 2004 itself has been out of support for 4 years. At some point, they have to drop code that's maintaining compatibility with obsoleted older version of Windows.

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schmuckonwheels 19 hours ago

If this was Apple everybody would be praising their ability to cut ties with old cruft.

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