Mopria could help us to wake up from our long print nightmare
Mopria seems to have a major publicity problem. Microsoft hasn’t mentioned or covered a solution for third-party printer drivers that is supported by all major printer manufacturers and works on Windows Linux Chromebooks and Android. The Mopria organization claims to support millions of printers and their drivers, allowing users to instantly install their preferred tree killer with our without access to Windows Update and which has come with Windows since Windows 10 21H2 … yet this never made the news until now?
It’s not just the time it takes to get a recalcitrant network printer to stop ignoring it’s DHCP assignment and stick with a single address, nor trying to find the right version of firmware and driver to stop a single paged print job from producing 176 pages each bearing only a single wingding character at the upper left which could make this so amazing. PrintNightmare told the last holdouts of third-party drivers that they were more than just a PITA. They also pose a serious security risk.
Mopria is set to become more and more popular in the near future, despite the lack of publicity. Microsoft has announced that they will phase out third-party printer drivers for the next few years to make way for Mopria. It is a rather long timeline. In 2025, Microsoft will stop adding new printer drivers to Windows Update. And by 2027, they plan to remove all third-party driver from Windows Update. Here’s hoping that the Microsoft IPP Class driver and Mopira will make printer support a thing of the past!
