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USB Printer is missing on Windows 10 version 1903 and later (with workaround)

USB Printer is missing on Windows 10 version 1903 and later (with workaround)

If you run a device with Windows 10 version 1903 or later, e.g. Windows 10 version 2004, and use an USB printer, you may notice that the printer is sometimes missing when you try to print. The printer port is missing on affected devices. Windows 10 users may check the printer ports on the device in the following way: select Start > Settings (gear icon) > Devices > Printers & Scanners > Print Server Properties > switch to the Ports tab.

Check for any USB port in the list. The affected printer and the USB port that it is connected to should not be displayed on the page.

Microsoft describes the symptom in the following way:

If you connect a USB printer to Windows 10 version 1903 or later, then shut down Windows and disconnect or shut off the printer, when you start Windows again the USB printer port will not be available in the list of printer ports. The printer cannot be used for printing tasks or other tasks because of the missing USB printer port.

Microsoft lists the following cause for the issue:

If the driver for the USB printer contains a Language Monitor, the OpenPortEx callback function of the Language Monitor would not be called. As a result, the user cannot fulfill operations dependent on the operation of the Language Monitor. In the “Devices and Printers” control panel, when selecting [Print Server Properties] > [Port] tab, the port for the USB printer (such as “USB001”) would not appear in the list of printer ports. As a result, the user cannot fulfill operations dependent on the existence of the port.

There is a workaround for the issue, and it is quite easy to apply. All that needs to be done is to connect the USB printer to the PC and power it on before Windows is started. If that is done, Windows will recognize the USB printer and printing functionality as well as other functionality provided by the printer is available during the session.

Microsoft is working on a permanent fix for the issue and plans to release it as part of a future Windows 10 operating system update.

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Windows 10 version 2004 is here, and it has lots of issues

Windows 10 version 2004 is here, and it has lots of issues

Microsoft released Windows 10 version 2004, also known as the May 2020 Update. The new feature update for Microsoft’s Windows operating system is available for systems running Windows 10 version 1903 or 1909 only via Windows Update, and only if users click on the “check for updates” button to search for the new version manually.

Even then, it may not be offered to the system at that point in time because of issues identified on the system and because Microsoft is rolling it out over time. In other words: the update is only offered if Microsoft’s algorithm concludes that the device is ready for the update and if your device has been picked by Microsoft.

Microsoft published a long list of known issues that have not been resolved yet on the official Windows 10 release information page. A total of ten issues are listed on the page currently; many block the new feature upgrade from being offered to devices.

  1. Difficulty connecting to more than one Bluetooth device — Affects Windows 10 devices with certain Realtek Bluetooth radios. (update hold for affected devices)
  2. Errors or issues during or after updating devices with Conexant ISST audio drivers — Affects Windows 10 devices with Conexant ISST audio drivers (Conexant ISST Audio or Conexant HDAudio Driver) with file names file name uci64a96.dll through uci64a231.dll and file versions lower than 7.231.3.0. (update hold for affected devices)
  3. Errors or issues during or after updating devices with certain Conexant audio drivers — Devices with certain drivers may receive stop errors or bluescreens. Affected driver is Conexant HDAudio Driver, versions 8.65.47.53, 8.65.56.51, or 8.66.0.0 through 8.66.89.00 for chdrt64.sys or chdrt32.sys.
  4. Issues using ImeMode property to control IME mode for individual text entry fields — Issues with some applications that use the ImeMode property, e.g. automatic switching between input methods does not work.
  5. Variable refresh rate not working as expected on devices with Intel iGPU — Monitors with variable refresh rates (VRR) on systems with Intel integrated graphics processing unit display adapters may not work correctly. Microsoft notes that enabling VRR on affected devices won’t enable the feature for most games (especially when using DirectX 9.
  6. Stop error when plugging or unplugging a Thunderbolt dock — Stop error or bluescreen when plugging or unplugging a Thunderbolt dock. Affected devices have at least one Thunderbolt dock, Kernel DMA protection enabled and Windows Hypervisor Platform disabled. (update hold for affected devices)
  7. Errors or unexpected restarts for some devices using Always On, Always Connected — Devices that support the Always On, Always Connected feature may receive errors or unexpected shutdowns or restarts. Devices with more than one “Always On, Always Connected” capable network adapters are affected. (update hold for affected devices)
  8. No mouse input with apps and games using GameInput Redistributable — Incompatibilities with some games using GameInput Redistributable that causes them to lose mouse input. (update hold for affected devices)
  9. Issues updating or starting up devices when aksfridge.sys or aksdf.sys is present — Devices with aksfridge.sys or aksdf.sys drivers may cause the Windows 10 version 2004 upgrade to fail to install, or may prevent the system from starting after updating. (update hold for affected devices)
  10. Issue with older drivers for Nvidia display adapters (GPU) — Affected devices with Nvidia graphics cards may receive stop errors or bluescreens. Affects devices with driver version lower than 358.00. (update hold for affected devices)

Microsoft blocks updates on certain devices automatically but not all issues that Microsoft confirmed officially have an update block in place. It is a good idea to go through the list before you start to upgrade your devices.

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How to Limit Screen Time on Windows 10

Both kids and adults need the occasional break from staring at a screen. Fortunately, Microsoft Family Groups on Windows 10 allows you to set a healthier schedule for everyone in the family. Microsoft Family Groups allows you to put everyone in your family who has a free Microsoft account under one digital umbrella. On the Microsoft Family Groups website, you can access a number of easy-to-use settings and limit screen time for yourself or your children.

To get started, you can make a family group either directly on Windows 10 or the website. After you invite everyone to your family group, find the member whose screen time you want to limit on the main page of your Microsoft Family account. Click “Screen Time” under that person’s name to open the screen time management page. All screen time restrictions are disabled for new accounts, so toggle-On the “Windows 10” option to open the screen time schedule.

In the weekly calendar, click any day’s schedule to edit it.

In the daily schedule menu, you can create one or more time periods during which screen time is permitted using the “From” and “To” drop-down menus. When you’re done, click “Save,” and then repeat the process for each day of the week you want to edit.

You can also use the drop-down menu under “Time Limit” to restrict the total amount of time an account can spend on Windows 10. For example, you can allow one hour of computer use at any time between 10 a.m. and 2 p.m.

You can also select “Blocked” to change this schedule to when screen time is blocked. You can also apply these settings to any other Windows 10 devices, as well as Xbox One, as it’s a Microsoft product. To do so, toggle-On the “Use One Schedule for All Devices” option at the top.

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Mozilla installs Scheduled Telemetry Task on Windows with Firefox 75

Mozilla installs Scheduled Telemetry Task on Windows with Firefox 75

Observant Firefox users on Windows who have updated the web browser to Firefox 75 may have noticed that the upgrade brought along with it a new scheduled tasks. The scheduled task is also added if Firefox 75 is installed on a Windows device. The task’s name is Firefox Default Browser Agent and it is set to run once per day. Mozilla published a blog post on the official blog of the organization that provides information on the task and why it has been created.

According to Mozilla, the task has been created to help the organization “understand changes in default browser settings”. At its core, it is a Telemetry task that collects information and sends the data to Mozilla.

Here are the details:

  • The Task is only created if Telemetry is enabled. If Telemetry is set to off (in the most recently used Firefox profile), it is not created and thus no data is sent. The same is true for Enterprise telemetry policies if they are configured. Update: Some users report that the task is created while Telemetry was set to off on their machine.
  • Mozilla collects information “related to the system’s current and previous default browser setting, as w2ell as the operating system locale and version”.
  • Mozilla notes that the data cannot be “associated with regular profile based telemetry data”.
  • The data is sent to Mozilla every 24 hours using the scheduled task.

Mozilla added the file default-browser-agent.exe to the Firefox installation folder on Windows which defaults to C:\Program Files\Mozilla Firefox\.

Firefox users have the following options if they don’t want the data sent to Mozilla:

  • Firefox users who opted-out of Telemetry are good, they don’t need to make any change as the new Telemetry data is not sent to Mozilla; this applies to users who opted-out of Telemetry in Firefox or used Enterprise policies to do so.
  • Firefox users who have Telemetry enabled can either opt-out of Telemetry or deal with the task/executable that is responsible.
Disable the Firefox Default Browser Agent task

Here is how you disable the task:

  1. Open Start on the Windows machine and type Task Scheduler.
  2. Open the Task Scheduler and go to Task Scheduler Library > Mozilla.
  3. There you should find listed the Firefox Default Browser Agent task.
  4. Right-click on the task and select Disable.
  5. Note: Nightly users may see the Firefox Nightly Default Browser Agent task there as well and may disable it.

The task won’t be executed anymore once it is disabled.

Closing Words

The new Telemetry task is only introduced on Windows and runs only if Telemetry is enabled (which it is by default). Mozilla is transparent about the introduction and while that is good, I’d preferred if the company would have informed users about it in the browser after the upgrade to Firefox 75 or installation of the browser and before the task is executed the first time.

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What is pingsender.exe on Windows?

If you monitor the connections your computer makes, you may have noticed that a program called pingsender.exe is making regular connections to the Internet. Depending on the program or service that you use to monitor connections, you may get additional information right away. Windows Firewall Control for instance displays the remote IP address of the connection attempt, and the organization that signed the executable files.

That organization is Mozilla Corporation, and the IP address belongs to Amazon’s cloud service AWS.

  • Pingsender.exe

You may have noticed as well that pingsender.exe springs to action whenever you close the Firefox web browser. The article “Getting Firefox data faster: the shutdown pingsender” by Alessio Placitelli provides additional information on the executable file.

Firefox collects data if telemetry collecting is enabled. The browse transfers the data regularly to Mozilla in intervals. A big chunk of data was sent to Mozilla on the start of the next browsing session up until recently.
The issue was that this could mean that Mozilla would get the data hours, days or even weeks after it had been collected by the browser.
Pingsender is activated from the second browsing session on. It is launched as a separate process during Firefox shut down, and attempts to send the telemetry data that was collected during the browsing session to Mozilla.
Mozilla managed to reduce the sending time significantly. According to Placitelli, 85% of pings reach Mozilla within an hour, and 95% do so within the first 8 hours. Only 25% of pings reached Mozilla in the first hour without pingsender, and it took 90 hours to reach the 95% level of pings without pingsender.
In short: Pingsender is a separate process that Firefox spawns on shut down to send telemetry data to Mozilla.
Firefox users may load about:telemetry in the browser’s address bar to check the data that Mozilla is collecting.
Those who don’t want to provide Mozilla with data can turn the data off under about:preferences#privacy.

Another option is available. If Pingsender.exe is the problem, you may turn that feature off in the following way:

  1. Load about:config?filter=toolkit.telemetry.shutdownPingSender.enabled in the browser’s address bar. This opens the advanced Firefox configuration dialog.
  2. The preference toolkit.telemetry.shutdownPingSender.enabled determines whether Pingsender is used or not. You can disable it by setting its value to False. Simply double-click on the preference to do so.
  3. The preference toolkit.telemetry.shutdownPingSender.enabledFirstSession enables Pingsender for the first session as well.
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