Graphic: HP
In one of the a lot more strange bugs to come out this yr, a variety of consumers saw their printers renamed to “HP Laserjet M101-M106” with the newest Windows update…regardless of regardless of what model or product their printer really was. While not precisely a Y2K risk, this was understandably aggravating, and almost certainly brought on a several problems in workplaces in which numerous printers ended up in use. Microsoft has introduced a take care of for the situation, but however it is not the clean sort of deal with that you may well have been hoping to receive.
As an alternative of a easy Windows Update patch that repairs the automobile-labeling error, impacted customers will want to manually download a custom troubleshooter application. The “Microsoft Printer Metadata Troubleshooter Resource December 2023” does what it states on the tin, at minimum in accordance to the description on the page. It’ll restore the correct label to your connected or networked printer (assuming you really do not really have the HP Laserjet M101-M106, of study course) and take away the HP Sensible software that was quickly downloaded and mounted.
As Tom’s Hardware notes, it’s a little bit irksome that in buy to appropriately fix the issue and clear away an extraneous software, you have to obtain another software. But evidently this specific gremlin experienced its claws so deep in the famously persnickety Windows printer process that it just could not be extricated without having making 4 brand name new executables (x32, x64, x86, and ARM, according to the support site). I suppose we’ll just have to deal with this sort of issue, right until the paperless office finally arrives in the much-off year of 2005.
