Possible printer issue with KB5005565

Brink said:

I've always used a network printer connected to the router via Ethernet. All devices on the network are able to print without issue.

Our problem is a different scenerio. I am using Windows Printer Sharing, so the printer is directly connected to the PC using a wired interface (USB in most of the cases) This PC is acting as a printer server, and other PCs are connecting to it remotely. And the problem is that Microsoft really mixed things around as you can read in this topic.

A guide would be great on this, all the workarounds are listed in this topic, I even compiled a one-click registry fix, that no longer works as Microsoft changed it once again. But the other workaround does work.

Can you help us with the guide @Brink?

Or if I create it, can you publish and pin it please?

On the other hand, there should be no issue with having a router as the printer server. That is not running Windows 10, and therefore is not affected by this bug (let's call it a bug, as it is hardly a feature even if Microsoft portrayed it like that, it broke compatibility in a horrific manner).

asus2016 said:

Update:

I'd been having problems with computers accessing our printer, which is USB-connected to my home computer. All computers had been able to print to it at one time, and then stopped "somewhere" along the line - we don't print a lot.

The impetus for my visiting this thread was that we got our first Windows 11 computer, and all the setup and configuration went fine, but I got 0x0000011b when trying to connect to the printer. I'd been able to "see" my computer, and the connected printer from the Win11 machine network view, but got the error when trying to connect.

I tried to use @ish4d0w's guidance:


But when the client Win11 machine asked for credentials for the printer-hosting computer, it wouldn't accept the correct credentials that I entered (why not? - should just be the username and password used to log into that host computer, right?).

I then tried the steps in Fix: Operation failed with error 0x0000011B (Windows cannot connect to the printer)

But there were some curves that way too:

1. The RpcAuthnLevelPrivacyEnabled registry key already existed on the host computer, and with a correct value of 0
2. KB5007186, which is supposed to be uninstalled, didn't exist on either the client (Win11) or host (Win10) computer - there was nothing to uninstall

So in trying to figure out what to do next, I took a poke at adding the printer, and voila, it worked. Recognized, installed, driver found and installed on the Win11 machine, and it printed fine.

So I'm happy I have it working, and all I can think is that the restarting the print spooler on the host machine - the only material change I made to anything - was what got it working.

You nailed it, great! HOwever, as on the why it didn't work the first time part - I now recommend against adding any of those registry changes, including my own patch, because Microsoft seems to have changed things around once again.

Adding that registry fix is not enough, as I wrote, and as I just discovered, it might even BREAK it even more. So just don't add anything, but set up password protected sharing, on all affected PCs. If needed, restart printspooler, but that should be it. Proper sharing permissions are also a must, as is an administrator account on the client PC for setting up the shared printer connection, especially when installing the driver. After that, standard users are also OK

The RpcAuthnLevelPrivacyEnabled registry key already existed on the host computer, and with a correct value of 0

Do not add this registry change anymore. If added, just remove it, and restart printer spooler.

KB5007186, which is supposed to be uninstalled, didn't exist on either the client (Win11) or host (Win10) computer - there was nothing to uninstall

That's not entirely correct. It is still installed, just not in its own, but as part of a later cumulative update, which you should not uninstall as that would also unpatch real vulnerabilities. ANd in some cases, you cannot uninstall it at all.

SO we have to live with this patch, as not even replacing printspooler dll manually is enough anymore. You would still get the same error.
Password protected sharing enforced is the solution here. There is no other way.

I'd just like to add my experience FWIW. I tend to be a bit verbose with my descriptions, so please bear with.

Last week I had to add a new computer to our network after we started having serious issues with random failures to boot up which we put down to a failing MOBO (it wasn't the power supply - we tried that first). Of course, in accordance with Murphy's Law, it just had to be the OrderController, the computer that acts as a printer server for our three primary production printers (For clarity I have put a complete description of our system and the problems we were having in a quote at the bottom of the post. Just ignore if not interested.)

I did a complete fresh install of Win 10 Pro 64 in the usual manner, and installed all of the software required to run the printers and to take orders and print jobs, essentially making the Programmes and Features setup identical to the previous computer. I then renamed the PC to "OrderController" (the exact name that the faulty computer had), plugged it into the network and then re-booted everything. To my surprise all the mapped drives, network shortcuts etc worked perfectly.... except network printing. We were back to "Access Denied" in the print list window and/or the Printers error box with "Operation could not be completed (error 0x0000011b)."

I took ownership of C:\Windows\System32 and replaced the existing spooler (saving the existing one to USB) with win32spl.dll version 1237, but that didn't work.

I made the change to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Control\Print\RpcAuthnLevelPrivacyEnabled. That didn't work either.

When I tried to roll back KB5005565 and KB5006670, I found they didn't exist. I am presuming this is because of the way I reinstalled Win 10 using the Media Creation Tool, it downloaded the latest version and therefore KB5005565 and KB5006670 have been incorporated and cannot be rolled back.

I decided to go to Settings>Devices and Printers, and try sending a test print. That didn't work, so I tried disconnecting and reconnecting the printers. Initially, this did not work. While the printers did connect, they would not print, but then I noticed something I hadn't seen before. When I clicked on one of the the Epson D700 print icons, in the status bar at the bottom of the window, right after where it says Printer Status: Ready, Documents: 0 it said "Needs updated drivers". I am pretty sure this wasn't there before disconnecting and reconnecting them because I looked at the status bar to see if it said Documents: 1 for my test print.

I double clicked the printer icon, and clicked "Printer" from the menu, and right under the option Printing Preferences, the option Update drivers was active (i.e. not greyed out). I clicked it, and it opened a small window in which I saw a whole bunch of files were rapidly downloading. After that, the printer printed perfectly. I repeated the procedure for the other D700 and for the P5070, and now, all my printers work. As a final check, I put the original spooler file back, and everything still works fine.

What I am guessing has happened is that Epson has now released Type 4 drivers for my two problematic printer types. I suggest that people still having unresolved problems might want to check Settings>Devices and Printers to see if the "Needs updated drivers" message is there (disconnecting and reconnecting the network printer might be necessary)

Our system is setup as follows

3 x workstations (Lab 1, Lab2 and Lab3)
1 x Workstation (OrderController)

OrderController is set up as a print server, and has three printers attached via USB
2 x Epson Surelab D700
1 x Epson Surecolor P5070
All three printers are network shared

1 x printers plugged directly into the network with an Ethernet cable - an HP Officejet 7740 All four workstations have drivers installed for this and can print to it.

Lab2 also has a Canon CP1200 Selphy that we use as a backup Passport Photo printer for when the main printers are too busy with large print orders. This is connected via USB as well as shared to the network via Wifi. Only Lab 1 and Lab2 have drivers installed for these.

The problematic updates only ever affected the Surelab D700s and the Surecolour P5070 and only when printing from other workstations. There were never any issues with USB printing
Initially KB5005565 stopped all three of these network printing from Lab1, Lab2 and Lab3 until we applied the uninstall update > registry fix > reinstall update workaround.
A week later KB5006670 stopped network printing working from client workstations until we applied the uninstall update > copy win32spl.dll to a USB stick > reinstall update > replace new win32spl.dll with one from USB stick workaround

Thanks for sharing your experience! It is useful but sadly, not all printers will have updated drivers released, and even if they do, this really isn't something that driver manufacturers should fix. This is some crazy change that Microsoft made and refuses to revert.

After months of struggle with this issue, I can only repeat myself: the only proper, lasting solution for this problem is to set up password protected sharing.

Yes, it WILL accept the credentials for the host computer. It, however, has to be a standard or an admin account, with full access to the printer itself, and for the shared instance too (so, on the sharing tab too)
And furthermore, it will not really use the credentials you enter for the printer, but try with guest anyway (which will not work, and will give you 0x0000011b )

After hours of desk banging, it seems the workaround for this issue is to create a shared folder with proper permissions set up (both for access on the folder properties - security tab, and on the sharing tab), and to mount it as a network drive on the client pc, and make it permanent ("reconnect to this network drive on each boot ..."), and of course to save the login credentials.
The network drive can be anything, doesn't matter. Can be read only too as per permissions go. This will force the client PC to use the credentials you entered.

Then, at this point proceed to adding the shared printer. If you also set up proper sharing permissions for the printer, it will no longer give you 0x0000011b .
And this does not require adding any registry patches, or changing any dlls. Those solutions are not good enough because an update could break them. What I wrote above, works solidly. But I still hate Microsoft for what they did with printer sharing, a simple feature essentially broken.

Great, so compatibility is permamently broken. Just congratulations to them.

Workaround still works - update all clients to Win10 with the update, and then set up password protected printer sharing by mapping a network drive, connecting using credentials and enabling autoconnect and remember password, then add the printer which will use the same credentials as the network drive.

TV2 said:

Yes, your method should continue to work.
I personally loathe password protected sharing. In my environment it is unnecessary and cumbersome.

I agree.

Password protected sharing dramatically reduces productivity and increases my workload as I have to keep running around all the devices and computers trying to figure out why computers won't connect to each other an to the network. I disabled it once I tired of finding all the computers on my network not able to communicate with each other every workday morning, and having to spend the first 30 minutes of each day going around to each computer and logging them in with usernames and passwords. Eventually, I became pissed off enough to just turn password protected sharing off on everything.