Printer Sharing feature is Broken in Windows 10 latest version

Hello,

I am screaming inside now, Microsoft seems to have broken, or to be fair, let's just say heavily altered (and not in the good way) the well-known printer sharing feature that has been part of Windows for... since Windows 98 I guess? And I'm unable to make it work. Please help me!

This is a SHARING issue , a problem with Windows networking, and not a printer-specific issue. I can't share ANY printers at all, if I am using Windows 10 21H2, or any recent version of Windows 10.

If I use legacy versions of Windows, such as Windows 7, or even early Windows 10 from 2015, then it works fine using the same steps. It is crazy.

What I did:
- Set network type to home/private.
- Enabled file and printer sharing.
- Turned off password protected sharing.
- Enabled guest any "ANONYMOUS LOGON" permissions for the printer to be shared.
- Shared the printer using the system dialogue.
- Installed additional drivers using the share prompt as we have a legacy Win7 computer too, that is running x86. (The main system is Windows 10 21H2 x64 of course, now hosting drivers x64 AND x86 for this printer)
- Checked the network menu in explorer on the client computer (One running Windows 10 21H1 x64 and other running Windows 7 x86). They can both see the server (Windows 10 21H2 x64) and the printer share. But unable to connect it, or add it as an actual printer.

Error is: unable to connect to the printer,
with specific error code 0x0000011b

I looked up this code and it seems others have seen it too:
Please Wait... | Cloudflare

I tried these steps but they don't work. And I can't uninstall that update, its not in the list. Also that would make me vulnerable to run old versions of Windows 10.

What should I do? I struggle to digest that in the latest version of Windows 10, printer sharing is just, well, broken.

This should also be of interest.

FIX: Error 0x0000011b - Cannot Connect to Printer on Windows 10/7 (Solved) • Repair Windows™

Thank you very much for your prompt responses guys!

@james sadly this didn't work : I don't have any of those updates installed, but later cumulative updates installed (fully up to date as of today , windows update says) I cannot uninstall any of those.

Also the printer does not have a network connection option , only USB, so my only option is to share it from the PC it connects to via Windows printer sharing.

But you're all right, this is definitely the issue that is brought in by these updates.

@MaloK This article you linked did result in some changes, now printer installs succesfully (as a local port option) but printing to it fails. There is some progress though: empty print documents show up in print queue on main server.
@Try3 thank you, I will make contact immediately. I definitely need more help.

Hello everyone,
Reporting back on my findings:
Thanks to your awesome suggestions, the problem is finally fixed!!!

in case anyone runs into this same problem (and probably will, since Microsoft broke it and left it broken, left it to us to fix -thanks..)
here's what you need to do:

Add this reg key: (handily copy this into a .reg file)

Code:

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Print]
"RpcAuthnLevelPrivacyEnabled"=dword:00000000

And this:

Code:

reg /F add "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\DriverInstall\Restrictions" /v AllowUserDeviceClasses /t REG_DWORD/d 1 /f

This needs to be run from command prompt, but can be converted into .reg key too.

You really need to RESTART after applying these fixes.
make sure it is restart, and not shut down, because shutdown is more or less like hibernation, it is not a clean reload of services, which you DO need at this point. Att least restart print spooler.


Downgrading the spoolsv.dll file is optional, I did it anyway as I really found the changes they made unneccesary in our configuration.

I thought there should be a one-click way of fixing this issue, and I found none, so I created it.

I compiled all of this into a one-click installer, and even though I made it for my own internal usage only, it doesn't contain any personal information so I will share it here.
In case you don't want to mess with editing the registry, just launch this patch, and hit accept, then, when it is done, reboot. Your printer sharing feature should be working now.

Please note: any modification (including applying this patch) is on your own, I take no responsibility for any issues this causes. Even though the patch merely adds the two keys listed above, to the registry, we must still think of it as "reducing security" as it effectively partially disables the "print-nightmare" mitigation. They call it mitigation, I think of it as they crippled the printer sharing feature, and broke compatibility. I am now restoring it. But you have been warned, it could make you vulnerable IF you were to install untrusted printers. However as long as you know the server computer and the printer connected to it, you should be fine I think.
ovinyomtatojavitas.exe - Google Drive

Thank you very much everyone for helping me, your contribution is what allowed me to fix the issue and creating this neat patch :)

Yes. They did the trick perfectly.