14 DAY TRIAL // Some of Microsoft’s March 2021 cumulative updates released for Windows 10 devices are doing more harm than good, as they break down the printing feature and cause a fatal crash on the affected computers.
The company has already acknowledged the problem earlier this week, but now it’s back with additional information to explain what exactly happens and to provide users with a temporary workaround until a full fix goes live for everybody.
“After installing KB5000802, you might receive an APC_INDEX_MISMATCH error with a blue screen when attempting to print to certain printers in some apps. This issue affects a subset of Type 3 printer drivers and does not affect printer drivers that are Type 4,” Microsoft explains.
So in theory, not all drivers are affected, so there’s a chance you install the new cumulative updates on your Windows 10 device and your printer and everything else is still working as expected.
Temporary workaround available
Microsoft provides additional information on how to determine what type of driver you’re using on this page. In the meantime, the company has also offered a workaround:
“To mitigate the issue, follow the instructions in this video. The Command Prompt commands from the video are as follows (you will need to replace KX driver for Universal printing with the name of your printer, as explained in the video):
rundll32 printui.dll,PrintUIEntry /Xg /n “KX driver for Universal printing” rundll32 printui.dll,PrintUIEntry /Xs /n "KX driver for Universal printing" attributes +direct
At this point, a full fix is still in the works, but an ETA as to when it could go live isn’t yet available. There’s a chance Microsoft would wait until the next Patch Tuesday update, which is projected to take place in approximately one month, to roll out the full patch, as this is the moment when new cumulative updates would go live for all Windows 10 devices.