Microsoft Makes Pull Print Generally Available (theregister.com)
- Reference: 0178665110
- News link: https://it.slashdot.org/story/25/08/13/165224/microsoft-makes-pull-print-generally-available
- Source link: https://www.theregister.com/2025/08/13/microsoft_pushes_pull_print/
The feature, also called "Universal Print Anywhere," supports two modes: direct print and secure release via QR codes that users scan with a phone camera or the Microsoft 365 app. Admins must register devices, enable secure release, and affix printed QR codes. Microsoft plans badge-based release.
[1] https://www.theregister.com/2025/08/13/microsoft_pushes_pull_print/
Or . . . (Score:2)
You can input whatever code you want into the print driver for secure print before you print and not have to deal with Microsoft at all.
Once again, making things far more complicated than they need be.
Re: (Score:2)
> You can input whatever code you want into the print driver for secure print before you print and not have to deal with Microsoft at all.
> Once again, making things far more complicated than they need be.
We have a networked Brother HL-l629DW in the common area between offices here. Where in the "print driver" do I put in my code? I can't seem to find it. Also when I get to the printer how do I enter the code? Our printer doesn't have a numeric keypad on it.
Re: Or . . . (Score:2)
Usually there's a usb attached card swipe or input pad
Re: Or . . . (Score:2)
It's part of the printer driver. You set your PIN on the same screen you might normally tell the printer to use a specific tray. You can do it per job or set a default. You don't need a keypad to enter a code; up, down, OK is enough, if a bit awkward. You might find a lot of people in the office using 1111 or 0000.
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> You can input whatever code you want into the print driver for secure print before you print and not have to deal with Microsoft at all.
> Once again, making things far more complicated than they need be.
Putting a code into a driver at an originating machine is how you prevent User X from using Printer Y or Feature Z (colour for instance). It doesn't address the use-case(s) that pull-based printing solves: roaming and ensuring that the person who gets the page is the person who printed it.
With pull-based printing, your print jobs sit in a server queue somewhere. You can typically walk up to any printer and release the jobs, allowing you to work around printers that are busy/inconvenient/broken without k
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No, 'print release' by PIN is extremely common and not usually done through 3rd party software. Click and enter the PIN in your OS print dialog and then printer holds onto the job until someone comes and scrolls the 'pending' jobs list and enters the right PIN. Literally a common eorkplace feature for 20 years, Microsoft OS calls it 'Secure Print'.
Not sure about other poster's random Brother but mine also more of a light duty prosumer/SOHO model that lacks a keypad, alphanumeric info is entered one chara
Re: Or . . . (Score:2)
> With pull-based printing, your print jobs sit in a server queue somewhere. You can typically walk up to any printer and release the jobs, allowing you to work around printers that are busy/inconvenient/broken without knowing advance.
That sounds quite handy actually. It's always a pain when you send a job to a printer then walk over and find someone printing three hundred pages. That said, I seem to recall working with a fancy Xerox MFD that let you pause one job, print another then resume the first one.
not here (Score:2)
I tell my users to avoid QR codes. We specifically do not use any QR codes in our organization. There has to be a better way.
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> I tell my users to avoid QR codes. We specifically do not use any QR codes in our organization. There has to be a better way.
There's NFC. If you have issued devices with NFC support then they could use that. Or you could put a reader by the printer and they could use their proximity badge/tag. There might even be a way to tie this into this functionality. Or you could get a printer with support for this kind of functionality and use that, at work we can enter a PIN for this.
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[1]PIN release is already supported on some printers. [microsoft.com] Badge release doesn't look to be available yet, but it [2] already showing up in the documentation. [microsoft.com]
[1] https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/universal-print/fundamentals/universal-print-partner-integrations#universal-print-ready-printers
[2] https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/universal-print/fundamentals/universal-print-qrcode#what-if-my-printer-already-has-another-release-enabled-like-badge-release
Re: (Score:2)
We have badge release for like 10 years on our bizhubs. Before that it was PIN.
It is pretty handy... (Score:1)
When I worked at Microsoft we used this feature internally and it was pretty handy. You never had to think about which printer to send a print job to (unless you had some special requirements like you needed to print to a giant plotter or something). You just printed it and whichever printer you walked up to and swiped your badge on would print your job.
Is this new? (Score:2)
I work at Microsoft, and the printer doesn't start printing any print job until you badge in to the printer. Is that "pull print"? There is one printer for the entire floor, and it is very rarely used. If your online sharing is well designed, you don't need to print anything.
Re: Is this new? (Score:2)
No, apparently this is sending a print job to a central queue then printing it on whichever printer you want. If you use secure print you can only print on the printer you send the job to.
I've been waiting for printing to die... (Score:2)
... for something like three-plus decades now. Yet people just keep printing more and more crap they really don't need to commit to paper.
Heck, I recall hearing - I'm pretty sure in junior high (1970s) - about the big paper companies like Georgia Pacific and Weyerhauser being very worried how computers were going to destroy their core business. The joke was on them!
Pricey (Score:3)
At [1]$25 per 500 jobs per month [microsoft.com], that seems like a pretty basic feature.
[1] https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/universal-print/get-access-to-universal-print?pivots=segment-commercial#pricing
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We have some printers at work which have this function. They have touch screen displays on which you can view job status and also release confidential prints. Some people even use this feature, but most of us just wait to hit print until we're ready to go get the print job. Since these are commonly 20 page, double sided (40 sides printed, that is) print jobs if you release the job when you get to the printer, you have some considerable waiting around to do — especially if someone else's print has just
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We had this about ten years ago in my former workplace - just insert your access/id card into a reader on the printer.
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Yes I've seen many incarnations of it 15+ years ago with scanning card to release the print job. At our local library you can also send down a print job via a web itnerface where you also pay. Then you get a code, and when you get to the library you can release the job. I use it the few times a year I have to print, and haven't had a printer at home (and dried out cartridges) for 20 years.
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Compared to PaperCut, I suppose it could make sense. I guess it depends on how much you print.