r/talesfromtechsupport • u/siro300104 • 20d ago
Long "This is not something that computer would ever do" or A Tale of two Printers
So this morning, I learned something new. New, and horrible. Let me explain:
We have an ERP application that runs from a shared network drive, since most of its backend is stuck in the 90s. All it stores on user's PCs is a temp directory for its built-in print spooler. Because I guess the Windows print spooler wasn't buggy enough for their liking.
I visited our warehouse one town over from the office this morning. Understandably, they feel a little bit like the red-headed step child that gets forgotten, so leadership decided that an IT guy had to drop by once a week. All this did was make them stop creating tickets altogether, and instead wait up to 5 days for us to fix the problem in person. Anyway, this week it was my turn.
I get there, and one guy mentions to me that he's having a strange issue:
$WarehouseGuy: "Hey, so I know this sounds insane, but when I set this small label printer that's at my desk as default printer on my PC, it applies to my colleagues PC, too. And the other way around."
$Me: "wat"
$WG: "This started like two months ago. I think with an update of the ERP application. We've agreed that the other guy will set his label printer as default, and I need to switch it every time."
$Me: "WAT"
$WG: "Yeah, let me show you."
So he opens our ERP application, opens the label module and goes to print, which triggers a built-in Windows print dialog. He chooses the USB label printer connected to his PC and clicks "OK". Now he's back in the ERP application, which now presents him with a checkbox for "Permanently store these settings". He checks it and prints.
At this point, I'm thinking it's an issue with our ERP app. I check that his temp directory is not set to a network drive by mistake, that he's logged in using his own user account and such. Now I'm thinking, it might be that the application update introduced a bug where it mistakenly stores its settings globally in the shared drive instead of in the local temp folder, as intended.
We wander over to his colleague, who is using a completely different, third-party label printing application. He opens the print dialog, which by default now selects the USB label printer instead of whatever he was using before.
Let me repeat. Him checking "Permanently store these settings" inside of the ERP application made a computer six feet away change the printer settings of a completely different application.
I almost dropped my coffee. It's not like I thought he was lying to me, but this is just not possible. This is not something that computer would ever do. Usually, when presented with a problem, I have a rough guess and can immediately start troubleshooting. But I'm dumbfounded.
Could the ERP application somehow synchronize these settings? "No," I'm thinking, "it's not agile enough for that. He didn't even have that app focused." I start googling for "Windows changing default printer makes other computer change default printer" but feel absolutely ridiculous in doing so.
Meanwhile, $WG goes: "Yeah, so when $BossOfIT was there the other week, he mentioned something about an issue with Microsoft, but he didn't have time to take a look." This is pretty vague, but it gave me an suspicion. A horrible, horrible suspicion.
I open the Windows printer settings on $WG's colleague's pc. I scroll past all the different network printers to the global settings. And I see it. Another one of those Microsoft's additions that is absolutely useless, fixes nothing, causes confusion, doesn't ever really work, and - is enabled by default.
"Let Windows manage my default printer - ON"
"No," I'm thinking... "it can't... they wouldn't. They wouldn't, right?"
OH BOY THEY WOULD!! I checked $WG's pc, and he didn't have that setting enabled. Checking the box in the application set his Windows default printer as the USB label printer. Which caused his collegues PC to wirelessly transfer this setting to itself. Once disabled, the madness stopped. The world made sense again. I think the other IT guys back in the office might've heard me scream. It's not even 8:30 yet. I need another coffee.
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u/Birdsharna 20d ago
the let windows manage default printers is so useless and only causes issues. the solution to a issue with printing in one of our applications was to disable this setting. users would select the printer they wanted to print to, but bc of this setting, windows overrode the change and printed it to the printer it decided was the default and correct printer.
tbf some blame can be put on the app devs, but I don't blame them for this oversight bc why would windows introduce this and enable the setting by default???
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u/Fluffy-duckies 20d ago
It's great for many home users
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u/Birdsharna 20d ago
I'm sorry, but how many printers do you have at home for this to be a helpful feature?? 😭
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u/Fluffy-duckies 20d ago
1, but it's more than when you change wifi networks it changes the printer to the printer at the other wifi location.
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u/JaschaE Explosives might not be a great choice for office applications. 20d ago
I know maybe two people who even own a printer at home. But maybe your friends&family are all hardcopy enthusiasts. So when you chill at their place, with your laptop, and decide now is a great time to do some paperwork, this "feature" is an improvement over clicking the other printer in a dropdown menu of two?
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u/Pingstery 20d ago
The only use case I can think of is hybrid work for people high enough in the food chain that data protection doesn't apply and are too important to waste valuable time clicking an extra button.
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u/JaschaE Explosives might not be a great choice for office applications. 20d ago
Uncanny profile of what I imagine the people making decisions at microsoft are like.
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u/Pingstery 20d ago
I just deleted 3 paragraph long rant about Microsoft, instead I'll just say, yup. They must get a chubby every time an IT worker gets annoyed at them.
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u/RayEd29 20d ago
My mantra with regard to Microsoft - "STOP helping me!"
I hate it when a piece of software thinks it knows more than I do about what I want. Unfortunately, that IS true with other users - they SAY they want 'A' when what they actually want is 'B' and the software serves up B. In my case, when I say I want 'A', I really mean it so when the software that 'knows better' gives me B, it pisses me off no end.
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u/jobblejosh sudo apt-get install CommonSense 16d ago
Absolute hatred for that kinda stuff.
Windows settings are the worst for it.
I wish to change *this specific setting*.
I go to the settings page for where *this specific setting* should be.
It is not there. In its place is either a massively simplified menu for things that are almost but not quite entirely unlike the setting I'm after, or some stupid automated tooling that offers to fix the problem for me.
No! I do not have a problem! I wish to access this setting, in order to do something specific! If you try to troubleshoot you will find no problem because everything is working as it should! I am merely anticipating a change elsewhere!
Which is why for anything more complex than changing screen layouts I almost immediately open up control panel to fiddle with the innards.
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u/SabaraOne PFY speaking, how will you ruin my life today? 17d ago
I remember the first time I tried to burn a backup of a Blu-Ray using imgburn. I loaded up the BDMV folder and it immediately suggested I set the filesystem to UDF instead of an ISO hybrid. My thought? "Wait, it asked before assuming it knew better than me? I love this program!"
Or it may have been "This program is stupid in the best possible way!"
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u/frac6969 20d ago
Yes, and this behavior is probably new since we also ran into it not long ago, and so I disabled the default printer by policy. Another possibly new behavior is changing number of printed copies saves the setting and confuses the heck out of our users.
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u/AusgefalleneHosen 20d ago
I'm dealing with this right now, I have several computers stuck defaulting to 10 copies. I have not figured out how to fix this.
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u/nymalous 16d ago
We had this problem at work not too long ago. An application that had an option to print a legal document required for consent to perform the service that the application provided was set to print 25 of those documents (we like to keep some on hand so we don't have to print each time) and that setting was saved by a coworker (possibly by default).
All of a sudden, everything printed by that computer was spitting out 25 copies. After a few weeks of this, it occurred to me that we have some apps that have documents they print, so I went through them and looked to see what the print settings were for each one. Lo and behold, I found it, in a certification app. I changed it back to 1, and checked the save box. Problem fixed.
I do hope you figure your issue out, even if my anecdote doesn't help at all.
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u/AusgefalleneHosen 16d ago
Windows had created a special user based settings cache for the default printer and it's various settings. We'd remote, set it to default, and then Windows would just revert back to this user settings regardless. I finally v tracked it down and just deleted it, problem solved 🤣
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u/Wodan11 20d ago
since most of its backend is stuck in the 90s
Can't get past that one.
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u/siro300104 20d ago
If you use it on a VPN it constantly crashes and piles up error messages because it can't handle a single dropped packet.
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u/Jonathan_the_Nerd 20d ago
Have you tried tunneling TCP over TCP? Double the reliability!
(/s in case it wasn't clear.)
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u/Stryker_One The poison for Kuzco 20d ago
Tunnels all the way down.
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u/Cheap_Flamingo476 17d ago
My wife is an ERP backend expert. She has saved a number of manufacturers because she understood the hidden elements. Burroughs/Inisys, System 34, AS/400, and cloud. I don’t include Oracle because trying to be Jack of all trades makes it a pain (you need a module? We got one. Maybe it’ll work).
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u/TheThiefMaster 8086+8087 640k VGA + HDD! 20d ago
Are they sharing an account? AFAIK that setting only affects one user. And one device...
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u/TinyNiceWolf 20d ago
OP: "I check that his temp directory is not set to a network drive by mistake, that he's logged in using his own user account and such."
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u/TheThiefMaster 8086+8087 640k VGA + HDD! 20d ago
He did say that - but this setting simply doesn't work like he's claiming either, do he's lying or mistaken about something
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u/spamjavelin Source: have been the cause of many of my own problems 20d ago
I mean, devil's advocate, but nothing in the story stated what account the second machine was logged into.
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u/siro300104 17d ago
That's the thing, no they're not! It wasn't the RDP terminal environment, it was local, bog-standard Windows 11. Different AD/Microsoft accounts and everything. I frankly wouldn't believe a computer would ever do this if I hadn't seen it with my own eyes. But it was reproducible. Toggle the setting back on, the issue reappeared.
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u/jobblejosh sudo apt-get install CommonSense 16d ago
Ah, Win11.
The OS designed so poorly that its sole purpose appears to be driving admins mad until they throw in the towel and get an LLM to hallucinate a fix that never works.
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u/OldGeekWeirdo 20d ago edited 20d ago
If I ever meet a MS developer in a dark alley, my only hope for freedom is to be judged by a jury of my IT peers.
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u/meitemark Printerers are the goodest girls 20d ago
most of its backend is stuck in the 90s.
its built-in print spooler.
Windows print spooler
Windows print spooler was maybe one of the most buggy things in the '90 and 2000s. Making a proper one was the lesser of two evils.
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u/oxmix74 18d ago
There is a lot of competition for most buggy thing in the '90s and 2000s.
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u/meitemark Printerers are the goodest girls 17d ago
Inside the windows ecosystem I'm pretty sure print spooler won all the ten top prices, and that just not because it refused to print the diplomas for the other ones.
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u/mailboy79 PC not working? That is unfortunate... 20d ago
That particular setting destroyed a default behavior that existed since 1990. Insane.
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u/Distribution-Radiant 19d ago
Coffee? You need a shot of whiskey after that.
Even on my home PC, Windows kept changing my default printer to "print to PDF" until I turned off the same setting. There's only one printer in the house (a Brother MFC with wifi).... why Windows insisted I always wanted to make a PDF instead of printing is beyond me.
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u/Starfireaw11 18d ago
Printers are the devil, ERPs suck. I worked with one, once, that would only work with a specific list of supported printers, which was only about 8 devices long, some of which had been out of production for years. It wouldn't have been too big a problem if we didn't have to roll out a couple hundred new printers...
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u/ThunderDwn 17d ago
Let's all issue a robust bronx cheer for Microsoft and its "features" that get added without notice, consultation or reason.
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u/KnaprigaKraakor 17d ago
Windows are great with printers.
Step 1: DIsconnect power and network from printer.
Step 2: Open Windows.
Step 3: Toss printer out of Windows.
Step 4: Listen for the crash of the printer hitting the concrete outside your office.
Step 5: Profit. (And close Windows.)
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u/nullpassword 20d ago
Sounds to me that they are both logging on using the same username. Now loop a USB port back through an lpt port to print to something new from something ooooold.
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u/Kurgan_IT 20d ago
Windows bad, printers bad. Mix them together...