What is going on with Microsoft Print to PDF in Win 11 24H2

SonicMojo · Tuesday at 6:13 PM

antspants said:
Two more things.

There is actually a virus called 0kb virus. Do you have any other files showing as 0kb?

Also, have you tried installing Acrobat “Reader” and seeing if it adds “Acrobat Print to PDF”?

@antspants:

AV - Defender standard + a manual Malware Bytes scan. This build is only days old. No chance of virus

I use a custom version of of Acrobat Reader 2017 classic - without all the crappy Adobe overhead. No sign of any Adobe Print to PDF and never has been,

@KevTech

Ports all match yours.

XPS document writer has been removed from my image but it has been like that for 5 years. Highly unlikely that is a cause.

Nice tip on the troubleshooters. Ran the Printer Diagnostics and it came back with nothing. Didn;t even offer to check Print to PDF - probably because it is not a physical printer.

S

antspants · Tuesday at 6:29 PM

Totally disable Malwarebytes and try again. Make sure nothing is running for it in the background.

Wynona · Tuesday at 6:42 PM

I Have tried this and it works for me. Hopefully, it will for you, @SonicMojo.

First go here to get the solution:
Redirecting

You are told to go to the old control panel. If you don't know how to get there the following link will show you how.

old control panel in windows 11 - Search

Be sure to follow the instructions closely.

Berton · Tuesday at 6:46 PM

I'm on an older Notebook running Win10 Pro, just tested the Microsoft Print to PDF, works as designed.

Wynona · Tuesday at 6:49 PM

Berton said:
I'm on an older Notebook running Win10 Pro, just tested the Microsoft Print to PDF, works as designed.

This solution is only for Windows 11. I'm pretty sure print to PDF works just fine on Windows 10.

BruceR · Tuesday at 7:04 PM

SonicMojo said:
Even tried the "print" troubleshooter in 24H2 and even that does not work - here is what I get when I click Run - instead of a "troubleshooter" - I immediately get take to the MS Store and see this:

View attachment 125106

SonicMojo said:
Also would love to know why I cannot even run the Print Troubleshooter on this build.

Troubleshooters have used the Get Help app for a year or two. Can you open Get Help?

Deprecation of Microsoft Support Diagnostic Tool (MSDT) and MSDT Troubleshooters

Windows troubleshooters -- Printer troubleshooter

KevTech · Tuesday at 7:08 PM

SonicMojo said:
XPS document writer has been removed from my image but it has been like that for 5 years. Highly unlikely that is a cause.

Or it is why you are getting the error "The specified module could not be found."
Is XPS enabled in features?
If enabled in features it should be listed in device manager.

SonicMojo · Tuesday at 9:14 PM

Wynona said:
I Have tried this and it works for me. Hopefully, it will for you, @SonicMojo.

First go here to get the solution:
Redirecting

You are told to go to the old control panel. If you don't know how to get there the following link will show you how.

old control panel in windows 11 - Search

Be sure to follow the instructions closely.

I have done this routine at least 3 times. No change.

S

SonicMojo · Tuesday at 9:16 PM

KevTech said:
Or it is why you are getting the error "The specified module could not be found."
Is XPS enabled in features?
If enabled in features it should be listed in device manager.

View attachment 125127

You are misunderstanding the comment - I have not had this option on for ANY image for the last 5 years and Print to PDF has worked flawlessly on all other machines for 5 years. The two are not related in any way.

However - just to be sure - I installed it anyway - no change.

S

SonicMojo · Tuesday at 9:16 PM

BruceR said:
Troubleshooters have used the Get Help app for a year or two. Can you open Get Help?

Deprecation of Microsoft Support Diagnostic Tool (MSDT) and MSDT Troubleshooters

Windows troubleshooters -- Printer troubleshooter

Yes. But it is of little "help" - if you know what I mean.

S

SonicMojo · Tuesday at 9:17 PM

antspants said:
Totally disable Malwarebytes and try again. Make sure nothing is running for it in the background.

MalwareBytes never actually runs on this machine. It is only used for a weekly manual scan.

S

antspants · Tuesday at 9:26 PM

SonicMojo said:
MalwareBytes never actually runs on this machine. It is only used for a weekly manual scan.

S

How is it you go about that? because my experience is that once Malwarebytes is installed, it always loads. In fact it’s hard to stop it.

SonicMojo · Tuesday at 9:28 PM

antspants said:
How is it you go about that? because my experience is that once Malwarebytes is installed, it always loads. In fact it’s hard to stop it.

Super easy to stop and easy to ensure it never starts with Windows. Just right click and shut it down.

Confirmed via ProcessManager. Nary a shred of it is in resident memory. I run it once manually every Sunday morning and then kill it.

S

SonicMojo · Wednesday at 8:09 AM

For all those that have offered to help - I am very grateful, but I wanted to quickly checkpoint everyone back to the two actual issues with this oddity:

1. The PDF print job NEVER leaves the queue:

2. The PDF output is ALWAYS zero bytes

Other than these two bits of weirdness - if you looked at my machine - you would never know that MS Print to PDF was not working.

My spidey sense is that if I can figure out exactly WHY #1 is happening - #2 will (hopefully) take care of itself....the mystery continues.

S

Tester · Wednesday at 9:29 AM

After you upgrade to 24H2, can you check windows update, and then driver updates, to see if it also upgraded that driver, maybe to a wrong one?

Also can you turn off Controller Folder Access for a moment, and then try to print to pdf? And does the folder where you save pdf to, still has the right user permissions set to it?
While waiting for a fix, maybe install a free pdf printer? There lots of them online. (CutePDF Writer, PDF24, pdfforge)

Also can you create a second user on the pc, and test if under a new user account pdf printing does work?

andrew129260 · Wednesday at 9:54 AM

SonicMojo said:
For all those that have offered to help - I am very grateful, but I wanted to quickly checkpoint everyone back to the two actual issues with this oddity:

1. The PDF print job NEVER leaves the queue:

View attachment 125150

2. The PDF output is ALWAYS zero bytes

View attachment 125151

Other than these two bits of weirdness - if you looked at my machine - you would never know that MS Print to PDF was not working.

My spidey sense is that if I can figure out exactly WHY #1 is happening - #2 will (hopefully) take care of itself....the mystery continues.

S

I didnt read the whole thread, but did you try removing it and re-adding it?

Someone else had to do that here:

Add or Remove Microsoft Print to PDF Printer in Windows 10

How to Add or Remove Microsoft Print to PDF Printer in Windows 10

www.tenforums.com

(This works in 11 too)

Reinstall Microsoft Print to PDF?

Thank you for considering my panic! I regularly use MS Print to PDF, it gives me a much more suitable output than either Adobe PDF (It doesn't help that i am beginning to develop a hatred for Adobe constantly resurrecting their updater and reinstalling their program into components of Office...

www.elevenforum.com

SonicMojo · Wednesday at 9:57 AM

Tester said:
After you upgrade to 24H2, can you check windows update, and then driver updates, to see if it also upgraded that driver, maybe to a wrong one?

Also can you turn off Controller Folder Access for a moment, and then try to print to pdf? And does the folder where you save pdf to, still has the right user permissions set to it?
While waiting for a fix, maybe install a free pdf printer? There lots of them online. (CutePDF Writer, PDF24, pdfforge)

Also can you create a second user on the pc, and test if under a new user account pdf printing does work?

Windows Update is locked off.

I do not permit driver updates (OR any other update of any kind) can come from there.

For Windows Updates - I use PSWindowsUpdate and it reports the machine is 100% up to date.

Controlled Folder Access is never on.

And yes - I have installed PDF Creator 5.3.3 from PDF Forge. Works perfectly.

S

SonicMojo · Wednesday at 10:00 AM

andrew129260 said:
I didnt read the whole thread, but did you try removing it and re-adding it?

Someone else had to do that here:

Add or Remove Microsoft Print to PDF Printer in Windows 10

How to Add or Remove Microsoft Print to PDF Printer in Windows 10

www.tenforums.com

(This works in 11 too)

Reinstall Microsoft Print to PDF?

Thank you for considering my panic! I regularly use MS Print to PDF, it gives me a much more suitable output than either Adobe PDF (It doesn't help that i am beginning to develop a hatred for Adobe constantly resurrecting their updater and reinstalling their program into components of Office...

www.elevenforum.com

I have practically become an expert in the Windows Print subsystem in just 24 hours.

Have tried every known suggestion, every known remove/install routine be it Control Panel, vbscript, PowerShell etc etc. No current solution posted anywhere - will allow this specific PDF printer to print a valid file.

Or one that does not get stuck in the print queue.

S

andrew129260 · Wednesday at 10:01 AM

SonicMojo said:
I have practically become an expert in the Windows Print subsystem in just 24 hours.

Have tried every known suggestion, every known remove/install routine be it Control Panel, vbscript, PowerShell etc etc. No current solution posted anywhere - will allow this specific PDF printer to print a valid file.

Or one that does not get stuck in the print queue.

S

I would just use something else then to save as pdf. There are multiple ways to do that. The free adobe reader has that feature as well.

SonicMojo · Wednesday at 10:05 AM

andrew129260 said:
I would just use something else then to save as pdf. There are multiple ways to do that. The free adobe reader has that feature as well.

Yeah - do not allow any current Adobe Reader product either. Too much bloat, overhead and who knows what else being installed.

I use a very light (and heavily) custom version of Adobe Reader 2017 for all PDF viewing but no printer option is installed with this version.

Have always used Print to PDF and it has been 100% reliable - until now.

S

What is going on with Microsoft Print to PDF in Win 11 24H2

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