Windows 10’s printer fix causes even more bugs – and potential boot failure

(Image credit: Jim Hill)

Windows 10 May 2019 Update is suffering at the hands of another of Microsoft’s cumulative updates (KB4524147) for the OS – yet again – and this time the fix for printer issues has caused, yes, you guessed it: more printer bugs. Not to mention the awful specter of boot failure problems…

Okay, so for perspective, let’s rewind slightly to the previous cumulative update KB4517211, which implemented a number of fixes including a solution for muffled game audio, but also introduced new bugs, causing major issues for printers (seemingly HP models in the main).

So this new patch, KB4524147, has just been pushed out to “correct a recent printing issue some users have experienced”, except according to widespread reports across the net and Bleeping Computer, it actually breaks printers for other users – and doesn’t even solve the existing bugbear.

A reader told Bleeping Computer that these updates actually “*cause* printing problems where there were no printing problems previously”, adding: “That is ironic because those updates are specifically supposed to solve printing problems.”

Ironic, indeed. Apparently the print spooler service doesn’t stay running after installing the cumulative update, but everything goes back to normal after uninstalling the KB4524147 patch.

Not only this, but the new cumulative update is also causing problems with the Start menu (again) whereby it crashes and won’t operate – not until Microsoft’s patch is removed. Nasty…

Boot failure

And if that wasn’t enough for you, there are reports of PCs failing to boot post-update, which is a truly worrying situation and reported across multiple Reddit threads.

Up until now, most of the bugs Microsoft has been blundering around causing with misguided fix after fix have been relatively minor, at least in the big picture – but a boot failure is anything but.

We’ve already made the case that Microsoft badly needs to get on top of these troubleshooting gremlins, or risk having its reputation ruined, and it seems that’s even more the case now. Because this is starting to get beyond a joke…

Darren is a freelancer writing news and features for TechRadar (and occasionally T3) across a broad range of computing topics including CPUs, GPUs, various other hardware, VPNs, antivirus and more. He has written about tech for the best part of three decades, and writes books in his spare time (his debut novel - 'I Know What You Did Last Supper' - was published by Hachette UK in 2013).