Windows update makes a mess of printers. Changes the name, icon and forces the installation of the HP Smart app

After a long time, some users of Windows 10, Windows 11 and Windows Server 2002 operating systems have been affected by problems related to updates. It happened in several cases after recent updates to automatically change the name of printers of any brands to HP LaserJet M101-M106.

In addition, the printer icon was also changed and the HP Smart app was installed through the Microsoft Store without any user consent, which allows Hewlett Packard printers to scan, print and share documents. Details brought to you by Tom’s Hardware magazine.

Renamed printers

Probably the first to report this problem in the Microsoft Community Support discussion forum a user going by the alias Surinder_H. On Tuesday, November 28 wrote: “I noticed this on multiple computers yesterday. When viewing in the old Devices and Printers window, all HP printers including integrated ones have printer icons like “Microsoft Print to PDF” and all of them say “HP LaserJet M101-M106” in the “Model” field.”

In the following days, several other users reported a similar problem. This indicates that the cause of these problems has not yet been fixed by the update. Reports indicate that the behavior affects printers from various manufacturers, whether they are wired, wireless, or connected over a network.

It seems to be an unusual problem as a result of metadata confusion, which affects the way printers are identified and displayed in the operating system. Metadata is information that companies like HP provide to Microsoft that help Windows recognize the hardware details of connected peripherals, such as a printer.

Maybe pause updates

Users have noticed that the above behavior applies to all printer brands except Hewlett Packard – for which the metadata is displayed correctly. Some users have even claimed that the system forcibly installs the driver for them even though they don’t have a single printer connected in any way.

Microsoft has not yet responded to this issue or provided a fix to reverse this problem. Currently it is not known which particular update is responsible for this issue. Hewlett Packard told Gizmodo that they are trying to find the cause.

As there is currently no workaround or fix for this problem, it may be a good idea to temporarily suspend Windows updates until Microsoft fixes the problem. You can do this in Settings – Update and Security – Windows Updatewhere use the option Temporarily suspend updates for 7 days.