Are you ready for Microsoft’s changes to print security?

For a long time, printing has been treated differently from the rest of IT. While cloud management, identity-based access and zero trust security have become standard elsewhere, printing has continued to rely on legacy print drivers and on premise infrastructure. But that is changing, and increasingly so.

Recent updates to Microsoft Windows are reshaping how printing works, with a strong emphasis on improving security and reducing risk. 

For organisations with established print environments, this shift raises  4 important questions: 

1. Why is Microsoft doing it? 
2. What exactly is changing?
3. What does it mean in practice?
4. How to adapt your environment without disruption?

Why Microsoft is changing the print model

Traditional print drivers are pieces of software installed on every computer to enable communication with specific printers. These drivers run deep inside the operating system, are difficult to manage at scale and have been a well-documented security weakness over recent years. Microsoft reported that print accounted for 9% of bugs reported to the Microsoft Security Center over recent years.

Keeping so many vendor specific print drivers updated, secure and managed on Windows has caused too much complexity and IT administration burden. Microsoft has therefore been working with partners such as Ricoh, as well as organisations helping to introduce international standards like Mopria, to enable a more modern approach to printing.

Compatibility has also been a recent challenge, as not all drivers work with ARM devices, and with a rapid growth in Windows devices running on ARM chips, this has led to problems with printing on new devices.

Microsoft’s goal is to reduce reliance on third party drivers and bring printing into line with modern IT principles: cloud management, reliable updates, identity-led access and a reduced attack surface. "Printing isn’t being removed but the old way of doing it is." 

What is changing?

Microsoft is steadily moving away from driver-heavy models and towards a more standardised, secure and cloud-aligned approach:

• IPP-based printing (Internet Printing Protocol printing), using a single Microsoft maintained class driver rather than hundreds of vendor-specific ones
• Cloud and identity integration, with printing managed through policy and identity services instead of local print servers
• Windows Ready Print, will be the default option for new printer installations from July 2026, and defaults printing to use IPP.
• Windows Protected Print Mode (WPP), which blocks third-party drivers entirely to improve endpoint security

The result is a more consistent and reliable print experience and enables a secure modern baseline for Windows printing, aligned with zero trust strategies already used elsewhere in IT. 

Choosing the right path forward

One of the challenges with Microsoft’s announcements is market noise. Headlines about “the end of print drivers” risk oversimplifying what is actually a more gradual transition.

Microsoft is defining a new secure and resilient baseline to modernise print, but it’s not a one size fits all solution. Organisations still need flexibility in how they extend that baseline to meet real world requirements, whether that’s cloud first printing, mixed IT landscapes that involve Macs and Chromebooks, or managed services models.

How Ricoh supports this transition

Ricoh’s approach closely aligns with Microsoft’s direction, while recognising that customers are at different stages of maturity.

Some organisations are ready to adopt native cloud printing models that integrate directly with Microsoft identity and policy frameworks. Others need greater functionality, visibility or governance layered over Microsoft’s baseline, particularly in larger or more regulated environments. And many are using this moment to rethink print as a service rather than an infrastructure ownership model.

Ricoh supports all of these approaches not by forcing a single path, but by enabling choice and supporting transitions over time. Those choices include:

1. RICOH Print Support Application
   Free Microsoft Store app that restores Ricoh-specific features on top of the Windows Ready Print (IPP) model. Can be used standalone or connected to either RICOH Smart Integration (if you are a small business) or RICOH Streamline NX (if you are an enterprise with complex print and scan requirements). 
   
   
2. RICOH Universal Print App
   If you are using Microsoft Universal Print natively within Azure and have the resources to manage printers and print services within your business, then the Universal Print app from Ricoh will give you native integration to connect your Ricoh printer with Microsoft Universal Print.
   
   
3. RICOH CloudStream
   Cloud-native print, scan, and fleet management platform, built for zero trust, IPP class printing, Entra ID, support for mixed IT landscapes, scalability for businesses of all sizes, and consistent embedded experiences across multi-vendor fleets. With compliance monitoring, device updates, and enterprise print management control it enables Ricoh and our partners, to deliver industry leading managed services.

This range of solutions and entry points allow you to pick the option that best suits your business, and evolve over time, without reversing any decisions. 

What should you do next?

Microsoft’s changes bring printing into the same conversation as cloud, identity and security and that’s a positive step.

For organisations, the opportunity is to reduce risk, simplify management and align print with wider IT strategies. For Ricoh, the role is to help our customers understand the change, assess their options and move forward in a way that fits their environment today and tomorrow.

We’re ready to help you understand how this may impact you, what you can do to get ready, and maintain uninterrupted and secure printing in your workplace.