Microsoft pushes Pull print, so you don't have to dash to the printer to grab the 'Fire everyone' memo
- Reference: 1755094513
- News link: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2025/08/13/microsoft_pushes_pull_print/
- Source link:
Printers start speaking in tongues after Windows 11 update [1]READ MORE
The [2]feature , also known as "Universal Print Anywhere," allows a user to turn up at any registered printer and release their print jobs. The user does not need to select a specific destination printer – instead, they can find hadrdware that is available, authenticate at it, and then retrieve their jobs.
According to Microsoft, the update reduces "the risk of sensitive information being left unattended and making the printing experience more convenient and secure."
Universal Print has two ways to release a print job: direct print or secure release. Direct print immediately releases the print job to the device after the user sends it. Secure release works by the user sending the job and then turning up at the destination printer to release it by scanning a QR code stuck on the machine.
The scanning can be done by the user's smartphone camera app or via the Microsoft 365 app.
[3]
On the administration side, the printer needs to be registered and secure release enabled with a QR code through the Universal Print management portal. Then, someone has to print out the code, find the printer, and, in Microsoft's [4]words , "Tape/glue the printout of the QR code onto the printer."
[5]
[6]
With Pull print, rather than pick a specific printer, a user can retrieve their documents from any printer – there is no need to select one in advance.
In the future, Microsoft intends to extend the functionality to include badge release technologies to securely release print jobs at the printer, "ensuring compatibility with existing authentication systems and providing even more flexibility for organizations with diverse printer fleets."
[7]German phone repair biz collapses following 2023 ransomware attack
[8]Users hated a new app – maybe so much they filed a fake support call
[9]HP Inc settles printer toner lockout lawsuit with a promise to make firmware updates optional
[10]Official HP toner not official enough after dodgy update, say users
There are alternatives to Microsoft's solution. [11]PaperCut's "Find-Me" printing will, for example, do a similar job. PaperCut describes it as "the ability for your users to send their print jobs to a single print queue from their computer or device, and release their jobs from whichever printer they're close to, whenever they want."
However, for an organization that has gone all-in on Microsoft 365 and already has Universal Print licenses, the addition of Pull print (which doesn't incur additional cost) will be appealing. If only to stop the occasional confidential document dropping out of a printer when the wrong person is standing beside it... ®
Get our [12]Tech Resources
[1] https://www.theregister.com/2025/03/12/printer_bug_windows_11/
[2] https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/blog/windows-itpro-blog/pull-print-is-now-available-in-universal-print/4441608
[3] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_offprem/saas&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=2&c=2aJy2lDAeBIxAZGLNCQSTKAAAAFE&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D2%26raptor%3Dcondor%26pos%3Dtop%26test%3D0
[4] https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/universal-print/fundamentals/universal-print-qrcode
[5] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_offprem/saas&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44aJy2lDAeBIxAZGLNCQSTKAAAAFE&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[6] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_offprem/saas&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33aJy2lDAeBIxAZGLNCQSTKAAAAFE&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[7] https://www.theregister.com/2025/08/04/einhaus_group_ransomware_collapse/
[8] https://www.theregister.com/2025/04/11/on_call/
[9] https://www.theregister.com/2025/03/19/hp_printer_lawsuit_settled/
[10] https://www.theregister.com/2025/03/11/hp_firmware_printer_toner/
[11] https://www.papercut.com/discover/easy-printing/find-me-printing/
[12] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/
Re: S-poo-ler
And an "I don't care if the paper size doesn't quite match, just f***king print it" button
Re: S-poo-ler
PC LOAD LETTER
Wow,
Wait 'til the 1990s learn Microsoft have invented walk up printing again.
Re: Wow,
Not quite.
The old 1990’s implementation wasn’t a tangled mess of MS-specific “security” (I use the term very loosely, obvs) and MS-specific “authentication” and MS-specific network goodness-knows-what.
The NEW SHINY version is bugger-all use to anyone using an OS that wasn’t written by clowns and that they didn’t get from a toy shop. As it should be, eh MS?
I made a pull request
and this time the wording was the right way around to pull the paper...
Still running as SYSTEM instead of finally as unpriviledged user, as they could have done it since NT 3.51? You may guess one time, and you are right.
Missed chance at AI'ifying printing
They really screwed the pooch. Microsoft had the chance to embed AI in the printing process and missed that opportunity Big Time TM .
AI printing will always predict where you will need your papers to exit. It will automatically choose from the right bin(s) and make sure the label printer prints the label for the invoice printer to put on the envelope from the envelope printer and the auto-binder is setup for mail queue printing to be mass mailed to the your neighbours using the envelope printer's output with the label printer's output and the blessing of AI sending you the invoice from the invoice printer, in triplicate, and CC printing the summary to QA and an executive summary to the CxOs and an overview of reduced costs to the beancounters.
Er, hasn't this been a feature of grown up printers
since whenever ?
In fact my only memory of MS involvement was when the print spool bug fix managed to bork printing completely.
Re: Er, hasn't this been a feature of grown up printers
It is a local printer feature. You printo to a specific printer, set your PIN or whatever, walk to **that** printer and retrives your job. This system doesn't send the job to the printer until requiested - and can sent it any printer - with which results if you printent with a specific printer driver and not a generic one, I do not know. PCL/PS jobs should be OK most of the time, others may not.
We’ve had pull printing for ages, now it has become our only option.
It’s a pita because the printers are far enough away for most people that we basically just get to watch the printer doing its its thing, page by page, while we suck in the ozone.
Some printers are more equal than others
Only some top of the range printers even accommodate this feature. Others could use third-party walk-up printing solutions which will undoubtedly work far better and not need a cloud thingy to work.
For smaller businesses, keep using IPP as it works pretty well (when the vendor's wonderful print solutions software actually works, looking at you Kyocera).
S-poo-ler
Microsoft’s “Pull Print” means your confidential documents won’t end up in random trays - but you’ll still spend half your day watching the print queue hang like it’s 1998. Forget QR codes and “Universal Print Anywhere”; what offices really need is a permanent taskbar button to nuke and restart the spooler every time Microsoft’s “world-class engineering” forgets how to talk to a printer. After 30 years, maybe fixing printing was just too radical an innovation.