[German]Since the release of the October 12, 2021 security updates, administrators have been complaining about network printing issues. Administrative permissions are required for every print operation – I had reported. Now Microsoft has confirmed this issue, but released the whole thing for Windows 11, although it affects Windows 7 through Windows 11 and the server counterparts.
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Confirmation of printing issues
It's the statment Receiving a prompt for administrative credentials every time you attempt to print, that Microsoft has posted in the Windows 11 status area under Known Issues. There Microsoft writes:
You might receive a prompt for administrative credentials every time you attempt to print in environments in which the print server and print client are in different times zones.
Microsoft points out that this only affects network environments with print servers, not consumer systems with directly connected printers. The print environments affected by this problem are more likely to be found in businesses and organizations, it says. The problem affects the following systems:
- Client: Windows 11, version 21H2; Windows 10, version 21H1; Windows 10, version 20H2; Windows 10, version 2004; Windows 10, version 1909; Windows 10, version 1809; Windows 10 Enterprise LTSC 2019; Windows 10 Enterprise LTSC 2016; Windows 10, version 1607; Windows 10 Enterprise 2015 LTSB; Windows 8.1; Windows 7 SP1.
- Server: Windows Server 2022; Windows Server, version 20H2; Windows Server, version 2004; Windows Server, version 1909; Windows Server, version 1809; Windows Server 2019; Windows Server 2016; Windows Server 2012 R2; Windows Server 2012; Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1; Windows Server 2008 SP2.
The issue is confirmed with a date of October 15, 2021. Microsoft writes that they are working on a solution and assume that a solution will be available by the end of October.
Hopeless chaos
Yesterday I wrote an article for German site heise about printing issues in network environments. In this context, I was confronted by my editor about the fact that Microsoft says the printing problem is solved. On the status page for Windows 10 21H1, there is the post here that deals with the requested administrator permissions when printing. Following screenshot shows that there the issue is listed as "Resolved with KB5006670". But the case was opened on October 15, 2021, which is after the updates were released on October 12, 2021 (see screenshot below).
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Either this is an error in the documentation, or the left hand at Microsoft no longer knows what the right hand is writing. However, the stated solution This issue was resolved in KB5006670 contradicts the above statement and what administrators in the field experience on a daily basis.
Note: German blog reader Wolfgang S. just posted in this comment an interesting observation about the behavior of Windows print jobs when the October Update is installed. Since the October update, spoolsv.exe apparently wants NTLM authentications again, which are rejected. Something has obviously changed.
Workarounds here in the blog
I had already outlined the problem on October 14, 2021 in the blog post Windows October 2021 Updates: PrintNightmare Status and Network Printing Issues. In this context, it turned out – also based on user feedback – that the workarounds described in the article Windows PrintNightmare: Status, issues and workarounds (Sept. 22, 2021) can help to disable the restrictions. In particular, the comments by German readers Andreas H and Marco are enlightening:
Hi all,
we have our group policies set up as in this post (also linked here on the blog before) and no more problems with admin credentials on a network printer installation.
Article by Mark Heitbrink: PrintNightmare – 3 Richtlinien werden benötigt (German)
By the way, if the admin credentials are requested during the installation, the installation does not fail at all, the printer is already installed successfully, but unfortunately only in the admin profile :-)
Many greetings
Andreas
Goth readers state that Mark Heitbrink's three policies addressed within the above linked German post PrintNightmare – 3 Richtlinien werden benötigt would have solved the printing problem with network printers (I had touched on it in the post Windows: PrintNightmare wrap-up and status (August 28, 2021)). Maybe it will help.
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