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Last week I upgraded from Windows 8.0 to Windows 8.1.

Yesterday I wanted to print something and the Print button was disabled on my printer. I checked some other printers and some of them had also the print button disabled.

net stop spooler 
net start spooler

restarting the spooler did not help. The only way I could get it working again is by reinstalling the (virtual) printer(s).

(I didn't have this problem when I upgraded from Windows 7 to Windows 8.0.)

In the event viewer I could not find any errors related to some printers not working.

Now my question: What is changed in Windows 8.1 that makes that some printers got the print button disabled (forcing me to reinstall them)? (Does Windows 8.1 introduce new checks? Does Windows 8.1 require specific configuration settings? Does it overwrite specific files?)

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  • There obviously have been some driver changes. While I'm not sure this affects printers as well, I've had problems with Cisco's AnyConnect Client, which includes a virtual network adapter. For it to work under Windows 8.1 it has to support different power states/energy saving messages, which it didn't (and this caused problems as Windows waited for answers it never received).
    – Mario
    Nov 4, 2013 at 11:02
  • The driver model did indeed change between Windows 8.0 and Windows 8.1 I have found that the drivers are basically not compatible with one another. I know this is at least true for the video drivers because of DX 11.1 not sure what changes Windows 8.1 made to printers. Make sure you only use drivers that specfically state they support Windows 8.1
    – Ramhound
    Nov 4, 2013 at 12:06
  • Hmm thanks already. Though, I could not find any documentation about these specific changes.
    – juFo
    Nov 4, 2013 at 12:38

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