Windows 10 V1609/Server 2016: Update KB4541329 causes printing issues/crashes

[German]Update KB4541329 released for Windows 10 version 1607 and Windows Server 2016 may cause printing issues on some systems (Terminal Server, Remote Desktop). Winspool.drv crashes and pulls the applications into the digital abyss.


Advertising

Update KB4541329 for Windows 10 Version 1607

Update KB4541329 was released on March 17, 2020 for Windows 10 version 1607 and Windows Server 2016. This update improves application and device compatibility with Windows updates. It also fixes several bugs. Microsoft is also currently reporting only one known issue with this update. I reported about this update in the blog post Windows 10 and Windows 8.1 Updates .

Update KB4541329 causes printing issues/crashes

We have known since 2019 that Windows updates cause printing problems, and I briefly discussed the problem in the blog post Windows Windows 10: Issues with Updates KB4522015, KB4522016 / KB4517211 (Sept. 2019). Also in January 2020, some users seem to have had printing problems (see Are Windows 10 update related printing issues are back?). Now German blog reader Erich W. contacted me by e-mail and reported the following observation:

I haven't been able to find anything in your blog about the Microsoft Update KB4541329.

I installed it last week shortly after its release on several 2016 servers. On two WTS servers I noticed that everything that has to do with printing – even calling the printer control – leads to closing the application.

Printing from all applications will close the application as soon as you want to print, Adobe, Browser, Word Excel etc.

I had thought that the profile of this user is broken, because it only occurred with one user. After a second user reported the same error on another Windows Terminal Server (WTS), I uninstalled the update and lo and behold, everything works fine again.

What I don't understand why only 1 user. But anyway, maybe this info can help other users in your blog to solve the problem first.

Blog reader Erich W. is not alone with his problem. I had noticed it sporadically, but I had not yet noticed a big wave of problems. A British blogger living in Canada reports problems with KB4541329 – WINSPOOL.DRV and the Remote Desktop here. You can find this post on reddit.com: 

KB4541329 causing Excel to crash

A few users on a remote desktop server (2016) called this morning to complain that Excel (2016) would open and then crash shortly after. Logged on to server as admin does not show this behavior.

Stuff tried:
– Reboot server
– Repaired Office

What fixed it: Looks like a Microsoft update kb4541329 needs to be uninstalled because it causes Excel 2016 to crash on Windows 2016 server.

And just by the way, the uninstall takes about 10 mins in the 100% complete window.

There are other users in this thread who acknowledge these crashes. In the Microsoft Answers forum, a user also reports crashes of Excel when update KB4541329 is installed. In the Technet there is this Russian language post that deals with similar problems. The user writes: 

After installing update KB4541329, access to devices and printers no longer worked. When you try to connect from one server to another server, if the option to connect printers is enabled in the properties, the session crashes.

The affected person posted the errors that occurred in the log in the forum thread. Anyone else affected by this bug?


Advertising

Similar articles:
Microsoft Office Patchday (March 2, 2020)
Microsoft Security Update Summary (March 10 2020)
Patchday: Updates für Windows 7/8.1/Server (March 10 2020)
Patchday Windows 10-Updates (March 10, 2020)
Patchday Microsoft Office Updates (March 10, 2020)
Windows 10 and Windows 8.1 Updates
Windows: Patchday Issues March 2020?


Cookies helps to fund this blog: Cookie settings
Advertising


##1

This entry was posted in issue, Update, Windows and tagged , , , , . Bookmark the permalink.

30 Responses to Windows 10 V1609/Server 2016: Update KB4541329 causes printing issues/crashes

  1. Casey Teague says:

    Yes we had the same issues and had to remove the patch..

  2. EP says:

    I recently installed KB4541329 on an LTSB 2016 v1607 machine and did not encounter any problems (at least when printer is connected locally thru a usb cable; networked printers could be a different story).

  3. FrustratedWin2016User says:

    Same issue. win2016 rd server. winword, excel, wordpad crash for some users only when they start the apps. event 1000. faulting module winspool.drv. exception code 0xc0000005.

  4. Advertising

  5. Anthony says:

    Did anyone upgrade to Server 2016 or was it a clean install? I am having the same issue I upgraded from Server 2008r2 to 2012r2 then to Server 2016. Printers not showing and Apps crash when printing.

  6. TK says:

    Yes same here on RDS 2016 servers. Winspool.DRV crashing.

    After removing update it is solved. Microsoft please fix this issue

  7. Daniel Kelleners says:

    We have the exact same Winspool.DRV crash on multiple Windows 10 1607 LTSB clients and not only with remote desktop. Word crashes immediately when you try to start it. Also explorer crashes when we go to Devices and Printers through the Control panel.

    At the moment it looks like when we remove KB4541329 the issue is gone.

    • Chris Twigg says:

      Exactly the same issue here. It couldn't have come at a more business-critical time, thank you Microsoft. Unfortunately, uninstalling fails on reboot with 'We couldn't complete the changes, undoing updates'

      The server was built on the day of the updates, so no backups to restore to.

      Any ideas ?

  8. Michael Russo says:

    same issue here, though we manage multiple 2016 RD servers for multiple clients, and the issue is only happening on one server (and even then not for all users, only some). still it's a real PITA, i tried blocking the update but it got reinstalled, and now I have to be worried about whether it will be fixed for april!

  9. Stefan says:

    yes, we are currently having this issue and it affects hundreds of users in our remoteapp environment. God grace for this post! I'll try to remove this update later on today.

  10. admEn says:

    Ошибка WINSPOOL.DRV, заметил что после обновления WinServera16 всё стало работать не стабильно и с реским закрытием всех окон, в логах была ошибка WINSPOOL.DRV – пару дней искал ответа, даже пересоздал учётку Админа – но не помогло, откатил последние обновления – всё стало на свои места.

  11. Stahe says:

    Exactly the same issue. Removed this update from all Remote Desktop servers and Word/Excel works again!

  12. Ferry says:

    Same issue here, some users not working, after logout and login works again. please fix it microsoft

  13. some.guy says:

    Bottom of this thread is golden:
    https://www.reddit.com/r/sysadmin/comments/fn2a2r/kb4541329_causing_excel_to_crash/
    ===========
    Issue is related to 'old printers' in the users registry.
    ===========
    Run "get-printer" in Powershell as the end user
    ========
    Compare that list to HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Devices
    ========
    Delete any extra printers from the registry.

    • James says:

      This seemed to work for me. I had one printer that showed in the PS get-printer but didn't show in the printers list on control panel. I deleted it and things seem to go back to normal.

    • Phrixus says:

      Legend, that is the issue.

      the reddit user really thought outside the box instead of going straight to patches.

      welldone

  14. Peter says:

    Hi!

    Same for me as well, in a RDS Win Srv 2016 environment.
    Sadly, when I tried to uninstall the patch and made the reboot, the server didn't start. Blue screen with error message 0xc000021a.

    Finally, I found the following link that get the server back and running again.
    https://www.wincert.net/windows-server/cannot-boot-windows-server-after-installing-update-0xc000021a/

    The patch uninstall failed in other words and the issue remains :(

    I will try some.guy fix above :)

  15. Rémi V says:

    Hello,
    I confirm that this one is working.
    Tested on RDS farm on three servers
    Thanks

  16. John says:

    Yes this is occurring even after cleaning out all the old print spools and also crashing in rdpclip.exe it could maybe be Kyocera driver related as well but not clear. Even with the print spooler completely stopped it still seems to crash. GPO background update on printer deployment preference items set to update don't seem to help things. Going to try and uninstall for a few weeks.

  17. TGG67 says:

    Hello,
    I've the same issue, and when I disconnect user, the message Instruction 0x00007FFA987E44FF uses memory adress 0x00003AABC3E83D8. Memory can't be in read state. Click OK to terminate program.
    This issue occurs only for one user on one RDS server 2016. I have a farm of 3 servers. Maybe it will appear on the other servers with other users. But now, nobody told me about that.

  18. Arnaud says:

    Hello,
    Got exactly the same problems on a 2016 server (excel/word/rdpclip crashing) for 2 users, no problem for the others.
    Solved by removing KB4541329 :/

  19. David Kachel says:

    We had similar issue to that above and it crashed our business app SAMPro from Databasic on our 3 server RDS Farm. Had to remove it to get everything working again. Hopefully they fix this soon as we do not want to be unpatched but we have to work too.

  20. Win2016 says:

    2 Terminal Servers on Win2k16 standard and the same problem with printing :/
    I hate this —> KB4541329 update!!!

  21. some other guy says:

    This was Gold

  22. Lazza says:

    Worked for me, BTW the "Preparing for update, 100% complete" screen after rebooting showed for 40 minutes before I could login to the the server again. I thought it had got stuck and was just about ready to restore a backup before it finished.

  23. Laurynas V. says:

    Does anyone, who has kb4541329 installed and have spooler crashes tried to install new update KB4550929? MS says this update addressed an issue that causes winspool.drv to stop working.
    https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/4550929/windows-10-update-kb4550929

  24. Ross Young says:

    Update all drivers to packaged drivers… Any reasonably new drivers are packaged. For rds servers, ensure all unpackaged drivers are removed from the server not just updated on the print server. Unpackaged drivers also break windows from installing without elevation prompts to update the driver for this very reason.

  25. Michael Russo says:

    I have not seen this with the 2020-04 update so fingers crossed they fixed it…

  26. Johnathan says:

    I'd like to join this thread to report back with my findings. I'm running a connection broker gateway RDS with 2 Win2016 Servers.
    RDS1 has KB4550929 installed but not KB4541329 (culprit).
    RDS2 has KB4541329 installed and KB4550929 installed.

    RDS2 is still crashing user desktop control panel, word, excel, and rdclip.
    Logged the user off from RDS2 and was connected to RDS1 the issue went away.

    I will be keeping KB4550929 installed on RDS2 and removing KB4541329. Today.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *