Microsoft's November security update can stop some documents from printing. The trigger hides inside the file, and there's no fix date yet.
If a document won't print after this month's Windows update, you're not imagining it. Microsoft confirmed that the November 2026 security update can make printing fail for files containing images that render with zero height or width. These images are often invisible, used for watermarks, layout anchors or added by software that builds documents automatically.
Your printer itself is fine. Don't uninstall the update to get around the bug, because it closes a large batch of security holes. Microsoft hasn't set a fix date, so keep Windows Update on and check its release health page for news.
Printer not working after Windows update? If one Word file suddenly refuses to print this week while your printer seems perfectly healthy, the November 2026 Windows security update may be to blame, and the trigger is something you can’t even see. Microsoft has confirmed that the update can cause printing to fail for documents holding images that end up with a height or width of zero at the print resolution you picked.
That matters because those images are often invisible on screen. They hide inside watermarks, page layouts and files built by document software, so you can hit the bug without ever adding a picture yourself. Microsoft lists Windows 10 and later, plus Windows Server 2016 and later, as affected, and it hasn’t announced a fix date. Here’s how to tell if this is your problem, which update you have, and the one thing you shouldn’t do while you wait.
The November printing bug breaks the print job for specific documents, not your printer. The problem sits in how Windows handles a page before it ever reaches the machine on your desk.
Some documents carry image objects that are effectively empty. When Windows renders the page at your chosen print resolution, one of these objects can come out with no width or no height at all. Before this update, such documents printed normally. Now the whole print job can fail.
Why would a file contain an image you can’t see? Microsoft gives three common reasons:
Microsoft says the problem shows up mainly when people print Microsoft Word documents through GDI, short for Graphics Device Interface, the long-standing Windows system that many programs use to draw pages for printers. It also warns that printing from other apps might fail too, so Word isn’t the only possible suspect.
Every currently patched version of Windows can pick up this bug once it installs the November 2026 security update. Microsoft names client PCs running Windows 10 or later and servers running Windows Server 2016 or later.
The November update arrived on November 10 under different names depending on your system:
There’s a catch in Microsoft’s wording. It says the issue appears after the November update or later updates. In plain terms, a newer patch won’t clear the problem on its own unless Microsoft says it carries a fix.
To see what you’re running, press the Windows key, type winver and press Enter, or open Settings, then System, then About. To check whether the November package is installed, go to Settings, then Windows Update, then Update history.
Plenty of things can stop a printer, so it’s worth matching your symptoms to Microsoft’s description before blaming the update. Run through these checks:
It’s tempting to roll back the update and print your file. Resist that, because the November release closes about 1,094 security holes across Microsoft products by one count, and removing it puts them back on your PC.
Microsoft’s own release-health pages tell people to install the latest security update because it carries important fixes. When an August 2026 .NET Framework update broke printing in some apps, the same logic applied: uninstalling it would have reopened the flaws it patched.
That August episode also shows how Microsoft tends to handle these trade-offs. Its temporary workaround for developers switched off new protections added by that update, and Microsoft admitted this could widen the attack surface. It recommended the switch only as a short-term measure when there was no other choice.
For the November printing bug, Microsoft hasn’t published any workaround for home users yet. If a document is urgent, the safer path is to keep the update and wait for an official fix rather than strip security patches from your PC.
This isn’t the first time a Windows update has tripped over printing. In March 2025, an update caused USB printers to spit out random text. In July 2025, another one broke the Print to PDF feature.
Then came August 2026. That month, apps built on Windows Presentation Foundation, a toolkit for app interfaces, could fail when printing or saving PDFs after a round of .NET Framework updates. Those apps threw a System.IO.FileFormatException error with content using certain character sets, and Microsoft pointed to the standard Calibri font as one example. Visual Studio and SQL Server Management Studio were among the apps at risk.
November is busy on the bug front as well. The same security update has caused Windows activation failures with error 0x80041008 for some business PCs, and updates released since the October Patch Tuesday have caused SQL Server performance and stability problems.
The people most likely to hit this are those who print documents built from templates and automated tools. Watermarked contracts, branded letterheads, generated invoices and reports all fit Microsoft’s description of files that may hide empty image objects.
That points mostly at offices, schools and small businesses. A team that prints the same generated paperwork every day could see a whole batch fail at once, and the failure won’t look like a hardware fault, which can send people down the wrong troubleshooting path.
Servers matter too. Because Windows Server 2016 and later are on the list, print servers that handle jobs for many users could pass the problem along to everyone who sends a matching document.
At home, the documents most at risk are ones you didn’t make yourself, such as forms or letters built by software you never see.
Microsoft hasn’t given a date. It has listed the printing failure as a known issue, but it hasn’t published a workaround or promised a fix date so far.
Your best move is simple: keep Windows Update switched on, check for updates every few days, and watch Microsoft’s Windows release health page, where known issues are marked resolved once a fix ships. IT teams should also keep an eye on the service alerts Microsoft sends to admins.
Probably not. The November bug affects certain documents with hidden zero-size images, so the trigger sits inside the file, not in your printer.
Yes. Microsoft lists Windows 10 and later, including Windows 10 22H2 with KB5131096, plus Windows Server 2016 and later.
It isn’t a good idea. The update closes a large batch of security holes, and Microsoft hasn’t recommended removing it. Wait for an official fix instead.
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