Microsoft shares an interim fix for Windows 10 printing crashes

Microsoft has provided an interim fix for Windows 10 blue screen crashes that affect customers when printing after installing the March 2021 cumulative updates.

Redmond has confirmed the known issue causing Windows 10 BSOD crashes after BleepingComputer reported a wave of user complaints about system crashes while printing.

After installing the updates released in this Tuesday patch, “you might receive an APC_INDEX_MISMATCH error with a blue screen when you try to print to certain printers in certain applications,” Microsoft explained.

“We are working to resolve an issue affecting a subset of customers using certain printers,” a Microsoft spokesperson told BleepingComputer.

Platforms affected by Windows 10 BSOD crashes include the following client and server versions running March 2021 cumulative updates:

• KB5000802: Windows 10 2004 / 20H2 and Windows Server 2004 / 20H2
• KB5000808: Windows 10 1909 and Windows Server 1909
• KB5000822: Windows 10 1809 and Windows Server 2019
• KB5000809: Windows 10 1803 and Windows Server 1803

According to Microsoft, this problem “affects a subset of Type 3 printer drivers and does not affect Type 4 printer drivers.” Follow the steps available here to find the type of printer driver installed on your system.

According to user reports, printer brands affected by this known issue include Kyocera, Ricoh, and Dymo.

“I am the technical support manager for KYOCERA printers in my country,” said one user on March 12, three days after the updates were released.

“We are seeing hundreds of phone calls from customers whose computers are crashing as a result of a KB5000802 update.”

Official workaround available

While Microsoft is investigating crash issues and working on an update, you can uninstall the offending updates by following the steps here to restore printing functionality and eliminate blue screen errors.

However, if you do not want to remove the security updates that were rolled out with the March Cumulative Updates, you can use an official interim fix provided by Microsoft to mitigate the problem.

While Microsoft is providing a video detailing the workaround instructions, we’ve also detailed the steps under the embedded video.

To print from 32-bit applications (e.g. Acrobat, OpenOffice) on 64-bit Windows versions without crashing, Microsoft recommends activating Direct printing for your printer using the following procedure:

1. Open an elevated command prompt and run the following command to see if the feature is already enabled (replace PRINTERNAME with the name of your printer):
   • rundll32 printui.dll,PrintUIEntry /Xg /n PRINTERNAME

2. If direct printing is not enabled, run the following command from the same elevated command prompt (replace PRINTERNAME with your printer name):

To print from 64-bit applications on a 64-bit operating system or using 32-bit applications on a 32-bit operating system, you must download and install the Application Compatibility Toolkit to apply the PrinterIsolationAware patch to affected applications using the Compatibility Administrator tool.