No, your printer isn't possessed: a Windows 11 23H2 bug could be making it print random characters when connected via USB

Printer
(Image credit: Shutterstock / Arsenii Palivoda)

  • Windows 11 23H2 has a weird bug that causes printers connected via USB to print random characters upon power-up
  • This bug occurs specifically with 23H2 KB5050092, a preview update
  • Windows 11 24H2 still has several issues

Microsoft's Windows 11 24H2 update has been the source of many problems for PC users, with a list of puzzling bugs - but 24H2 isn't the only version of Windows 11 to suffer from strange issues, as a specific 23H2 update has some of its own. And, it's pretty funny if you ask me.

As reported by our friends at PC Gamer, Windows 11 23H2 update KB5050092 is causing printers connected by USB to churn out pages of random characters due to a strange bug. You might think an easy solution is to disconnect your USB printer until you need to use it again… but it's not that simple.

Microsoft confirms that the issue mostly occurs when powering on your printer or reconnecting it to your device after being disconnected - so, it isn't exactly an easy fix if you can't take control of the printer before it starts spilling out gibberish. While annoying (and a little spooky), it's certainly a lot less of an issue than Windows 24H2's litany of problems, some of which are still being discovered by users before being officially listed among the known issues.

Unless you're using a printer (specifically a USB printer), you can probably stick with 23H2 without running into system-breaking bugs that have left hardware components with worse performance in some cases.

Windows 11 logo

(Image credit: Microsoft)

Yeah, I'm still sticking with Windows 11 23H2 thanks...

The chances of a feature update for Windows 11 (or any operating system) not coming with a list of issues are very low, but the 24H2 update is one of the worst I've seen and I'll gladly stay away for now.

As a gamer, running into strange bugs like frequent Bluetooth connection errors (which still haven't been resolved) and game incompatibility - particularly Ubisoft's Assassin's Creed which forced the devs' hand to push a game update - rolling back to 23H2 has been great so far.

It also doesn't help that Nvidia's recent Game Ready Drivers have caused issues for gamers - a combination of 24H2 and GPU driver fails are problems you really don't want, especially when you could be locked out of your PC.

Windows 11 23H2's printer bug is strange (and also quite funny), and while it can be annoying it’s nowhere near enough of a dealbreaker to warrant going back to 24H2. I'm just hoping that Microsoft can get its latest feature update into good shape soon.

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Isaiah Williams
Staff Writer, Computing

Isaiah is a Staff Writer for the Computing channel at TechRadar. He's spent over two years writing about all things tech, specifically games on PC, consoles, and handhelds. He started off at GameRant in 2022 after graduating from Birmingham City University in the same year, before writing at PC Guide which included work on deals articles, reviews, and news on PC products such as GPUs, CPUs, monitors, and more. He spends most of his time finding out about the exciting new features of upcoming GPUs, and is passionate about new game releases on PC, hoping that the ports aren't a complete mess.

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