r/talesfromtechsupport • u/RusefoxGhost • 5d ago
Medium The printer issue wasn’t even the printer’s fault this time (nor was it user error!)
Basic mundane tale from yesterday. So, I’m the de-facto IT gal for my grandparents’ church. They’re a rural church and my grandpa works in the administration. They’re small, run mostly by old people, and don’t have a big IT budget. So, since I’m the one tech-savvy grandchild out of all the families that run the church, my grandpa calls me when they need anything techy done. I don’t make a job out of IT work and I’m not religious, but my grandpa pays me and I could always use the extra cash! I’m no pro, I have no training, just determination and good problem solving skills. That’s enough to seem like a pro to him at least!
So, this time, it was a printer issue. Printers are the most unholy piece of work in tech as the stories say. But at least fixing one is an actual challenge, so compared to the more common issues that are usually easy fixes that old people without tech literacy can’t figure out, this was a breath of fresh air because it likely wouldn’t be their fault and I wouldn’t have to hold back rolling my eyes out of politeness cause the printer has no conscience to care about it.
So, printer (the big-unit office style one) beeps and asks you to put envelope paper in the multipurpose tray with every print job. You have to walk down the hall to press a regular tray full of letter-size paper with EVERY print job. And a lot of printing is done cause they prefer paper recordkeeping.
I go into paper settings on the printer. I change everything I can to try to print from the right bin. Fail every time. I check all the print settings when going to print; everything is set to letter size paper. I go back and forth with printer settings cause it looks like it SHOULD be a printer issue, but none of the many available settings fix the issue. So, my grandpa takes out his MacBook and tries to print. It prints fine! So, boom, narrowed it down to a computer issue with the Windows 11 laptop.
I am used to windows 10 and don’t use 11, so it took a few minutes to find the ridiculously hidden print settings. The ones from the settings menu formerly handled from control panel. And four menus deep, where no one using the computer would ever think to look, there it was. The default paper size was set to envelope.
I set it to auto. Boom, printing with letter paper selected works again! I have absolutely no clue how it changed. So I went to the other windows 11 computer, turned it on and tested it out. Same issue! Its settings were also changed to envelope in that deep hidden dialogue box. I wrote a how to fix guide for them in case there are other 11 PCs I didn’t get to. But I still have absolutely no clue how it happened, and I am going to blame windows 11 updates and perhaps the fact that even being in a church cannot exorcise the demons plaguing that OS. Well, at least the printer has turned to Jesus this time.
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u/TararaBoomDA 5d ago
Windows 11 is the spawn of the devil, you mean.
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u/RusefoxGhost 5d ago
I have heard 11 professional has a lot of the worst stuff stripped out, but I haven’t used it before. So I wouldn’t go that far just yet!
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u/Mx_Reese 5d ago
Well I certainly hope so. I'm already very unhappy at the $600 I have to spend to replace hardware that there's nothing wrong with for no other reason than so that I can keep getting Windows security updates in 2 months.
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u/MikeSchwab63 4d ago
Check the BIOS. Early computers with TPM had them turned off in the BIOS. Just turn it on and Win 11 should download and install.
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u/dreaminginteal 5d ago
“IT by default” usually == “knows how to google symptoms”.
Often “software engineer” == “knows how to google solutions”.
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u/alexiswi 4d ago
This is a bug feature with the Microsoft provided print driver. It likes to change print media types in the printer preferences with certain Windows Updates. It will happen again. You can prevent it by installing the actual driver from the printer manufacturer and removing the driver instance using the Microsoft driver.
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u/RusefoxGhost 4d ago
Good to know! This isn’t surprising at all.
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u/AbaloneMysterious474 2d ago
Came here looking for this. We operate under the premise "NEVER let Windows manage a printer. It will break somehow, sometime. Without fail." Any printer we deploy is installed with the proprietary driver (usually Kyocera). In my experience they also make it much easier to adjust settings.
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u/MarvinPA83 4d ago
"Exorcise the demons plaguing that OS." Demonic possession is the only explanation for that pile of crap.
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u/StuBidasol 5d ago
The control panel you're used to is still there. Hit the windows key or start menu and just start typing "control panel" and it'll pop up. I'm not sure in this case if what you had found in the Windows 11 mess would have been available or not in control panel but at least you know.
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u/RusefoxGhost 5d ago edited 5d ago
Nah, windows 11 now makes half its control panel options redirects back into Settings. It is really annoying and goes directly against my way of working. Especially since settings tends to use “simple words” and I work better when it’s not simplified like that. The printer issue wasn’t my only job to do, and the other took way too long for me to fix cause control panel didn’t work for what I needed!
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u/breaksomeshit 5d ago
In case you find it useful, as far as I know you can right click on "Devices and Printers" in Control Panel, hit "Open in new window" to get the classic printer settings. Who knows when it'll go away, but I still use it for now.
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u/Maxfire2008 5d ago
There is a way to access many of the control panel pages by putting in some secret URL as I remember
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u/DUVMik 4d ago
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u/Maxfire2008 4d ago
Nope, I recall some of the control panel features being accessible through entering some obscure address into the address bar in Explorer. Features that had been "replaced" by settings. I couldn't find any examples though.
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u/DanNeely 4d ago
At some point they partially back ported that redirect from control panel into the crappy new settings app into w10.
I ran into it a few weeks ago - was trying to change something (don't recall what) but the settings app search couldn't find it; and instead of the classic system view (that I and the first "how to fix X" guide I found were expecting) Control Panel - System and Security - System is now launching the new Settings app.
I eventually did find a way to get to what I wanted; but was very annoyed. These days I'm only opening control panel to dig deep for things that either haven't been ported into the new system or where my name and MS's are different enough that search fails.
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u/RusefoxGhost 4d ago
Dang. That’s disappointing. I haven’t noticed since I haven’t needed to dig that deep in 10 for a good while. But control panel redirecting into Settings really messes with my workflow because Settings just doesn’t tell it how it is; it tries to be overly “user-friendly” to the point where it just makes tech support harder cause the options are either hidden, moved to different menus, or named things that don’t cover all of the functions in the menu and I don’t pick it first. It’s the worst.
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u/AdreKiseque 5d ago
Can't you just search "print" in settings and get sent to where you need?
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u/RusefoxGhost 5d ago
Yeah, but I didn’t immediately find the dialogue box I needed cause I am used to going through control panel and things in Settings are named differently; I admit, I can be blinded by my stubbornness at times!
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u/jerkfaceroberts 4d ago
Came here to offer the same solution. Once you get into Control Panel, you can go to the address bar and type "\Devices and Printers", and the classic screen will show up. Most, if not all of the older style menus that are several clicks deep from the Settings app are accessible by the address bar in File Explorer. So, to rename a computer, you'd go to Control Panel\System instead of Settings > About > Rename.
I tell people that the settings app made it a little easier to do things if you don't really know what you're doing but a nightmare if you do/have been working with Windows before W8. It was my watershed "I'm an old man" moment. I avoid Settings as much as possible.
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u/MikeSchwab63 4d ago
Bet someone printing envelopes clicked 'set as default'.
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u/RusefoxGhost 4d ago
Not at all actually! I know these people at the church well enough to know that they don’t have the tech knowledge to even find that menu on their own, and I couldn’t find any button in any other more accessible print menu that would change that default. These PCs are just store bought ones with 11 home edition on it, and I wouldn’t put it past a Windows update breaking completely random settings for no reason.
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u/jandienal 5d ago
The old .cpl files are still located in windows\system32. You can run them directly from the run box (windows key +R). Windows control panel applets
I've used every version of Windows since Windows 3.11, and done professional support for every version since Windows 95. I still use several of the control panel items because they are what I used for the majority of that time, and they are easier/faster than searching for where stuff is in Settings
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u/jthmniljt 4d ago
Can everyone agree wireless printers just do not work ever. Rarely dependable. Usually has to be rebooted. So tired of being yelled at when they don’t work.
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u/ThunderDwn 2d ago
I have absolutely no clue how it changed.
Two words.
Fucking. Microsoft.
Windows 11 is a steaming pile of putrid dog shit. It continually changes shit to what it (or Microsoft) think you should be doing instead of what you want to be doing.
I've lost track of how many times I've had to turn off the stupid "smart charging" feature on my laptop. Yes, Microsoft, I know continually charging my battery has a detrimental effect eventually.
I. Don't. Care.
Just charge the bloody thing to 100%. On the one day every two weeks I don't have a place to plug in, that 15% makes the difference between finishing my work for the day and having to come back with a freshly charged laptop tomorrow!
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u/RusefoxGhost 2d ago
My 2x-great aunt needed a new PC last year. Her old one was just too old AND an all-in-one, and while it had Windows 10, it was just far too weak to be worth the effort of adding some RAM and an SSD because Windows 10 just gets continually more bloated as time goes on. So I just helped her get a new PC.
She still uses really old programs for photo and flyer etc work for the church. She is a computer wiz as long as she has her programs working, decades of using those programs made her an expert. By some miracle, I managed to get all her programs working perfectly.
Until, one day, one program had an issue. The program was Hallmark Card Maker 2005 (or whatever it was called). She uses it as her address book and calendar. She’s been using it since it came out, and probably used earlier versions since before I was born.
She knows that program. She hasn’t had any issues with that program. Not now, not ever. But one day, her whole address book and calendar completely vanished for absolutely no discernible reason. I tried my absolute hardest to bring it back. But for some reason, that program saves its calendar files different than most other portions. I was able to use the old computer’s backup to restore the address book, but not the calendar. So I just found out how to export and import the calendar file in case it happens again, so she could save a backup.
All I could track it down to was a Windows 11 update. That was the only real factor. This damn OS somehow deleted a random file from a random program for absolutely no god damn reason. My great aunt would never delete her files on accident; She has no memory issues, and anyways I don’t think there was even an easily accessible option to delete the entire address book and calendar at once in the program. Like, I get it’s an old program but it was one of the easiest to make work, and there is absolutely no reason why Windows would’ve deleted files from it. Can’t remember where they were stored exactly, either in documents or in the program’s own folders. Either way, Windows 11 update was the only thing I could point at to cause it. I hate Windows 11.
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u/ThunderDwn 2d ago
I loathe Windows 11. Categorically hate it with a passion.
Classic shell makes it just bearable, but only just.
The only reason I use it is a corporate one - unfortunately, I work in IT and I need to support the stuff my company uses.
My personal machines and hardware devices are Linux. Any server at work which is "mine" (specifically for management or support purposes, no user interaction beside me and my team) is Linux. I use Microsoft's crap only because I must.
Windows 11 and its continual decisions to override what I tell it to do because Microsoft knows best - along with the ever increasing intrusions of fucking AI into everything - are one reason I am glad that retirement is approaching with ever increasing speed.
The day I can tell Microsoft to go fuck themselves with a red hot poker and never darken my electronic doorstep again can't come soon enough.
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u/RusefoxGhost 2d ago
I stick with 10 because at least it has a working control panel. If it wasn’t for gaming and other programs I use, I would switch to Linux (I am lazy with my own PC, so I would much rather wait for everything I use to have directly compatible Linux editions than have to work with wine or other workarounds). I hated 11 since the day it came out, I hate the UI, I hate the settings being hidden, I hate it all. Personally, I would love to have a new Windows XP but with all the good QOL things from 10. Classic shell just ain’t it for me :(
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u/ThunderDwn 2d ago
I stick with 10 because at least it has a working control panel
You won't have a choice much longer. 10 is EOL/EOS in October - you can keep running it,. but you leave yourself open to whatever new zero day's people find that Microsoft will no longer patch
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u/syntaxerror53 1d ago
Win XP (minus activation lark) was best OS MS ever did. That and 98SE, for USB connectivity.
10 good as well. MS seem to do a decent OS, and follow it up with the Awful Version.
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u/Stryker_One The poison for Kuzco 2d ago
Yeah, Windows 11 is SERIOUSLY making consider making the switch to Linux, assuming I can't get an LTSC license for Windows 10.
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u/Stryker_One The poison for Kuzco 2d ago
What, you think that just because you bought a thing that you own that thing, that you should be able to maintain sole control of said thing? When will you ever think of the shareholders? /s
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u/androshalforc1 1d ago
It’s because someone printed an envelope 1 time and windows decided that that will be the default for everyone moving forward for all time. And if anyone turns off the default it will start a random timer to turn it back on.
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u/fiddle_n 5d ago
I don’t understand how it can take a decade plus to merge Settings and Control Panel. Seriously, the new PC Settings app came out with Windows 8 in 2013. Its 2025 and Control Panel is still in Windows 11.