Microsoft tried to kill the printer driver. 90% of US healthcare said no.
In late 2025, Microsoft put a line on the Windows Roadmap that should have read as routine. Starting January 2026, Windows Update would stop shipping legacy V3 and V4 printer drivers. Modern Print Platform only. Goodbye to a decade of brittle vendor blobs.
In February 2026 they quietly took it back. The line vanished from the roadmap. The official statement told users no action applies. Existing printers will keep working. The deprecation, for now, sits on hold.
Microsoft holds more market power than almost any company in history. They tried to retire a category of driver that Microsoft itself deprecated back in September 2023. They could not actually pull it off. The reason sits in every hospital in the United States, and it makes a noise like a 1990s modem.
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