Windows printing has historically been one of the worst parts of the operating system. Printers stop working after a Windows update, manufacturer drivers go stale, and you end up reading forum posts from 2014 to fix something that should not have broken. Windows Ready Print is Microsofts attempt to retire most of that mess. If you are running Windows 11 and you have bought a printer in the last few years, you are probably already using it without realizing.
This is a short guide to what Ready Print actually changes, which printers and Windows versions support it, and how to turn the toggle on or off if you would rather not trust it.
What Ready Print actually changes under the hood
The problem Ready Print solves is the third-party driver chain. For decades, every printer model you plugged into Windows required a manufacturer-supplied driver (a small piece of software that teaches Windows how to talk to a specific piece of hardware), and that driver had to be maintained, signed, updated, and kept compatible with every Windows build. Most of the time it worked. A quarter of the time, a Windows update would break a printer that had been fine for years.
Ready Print replaces that chain with two well-tested protocols that have been around for a long time:
- IPP (Internet Printing Protocol), a network standard for sending print jobs to a printer over IP, the same approach phones use to print without installing a driver.
- eSCL, the same kind of standard, used for scanning instead of printing.
The practical effect is that Windows does not need a per-model driver to talk to a Mopria-certified (a cross-vendor certification program that ensures printers support the same modern, driverless protocols) printer. The operating system knows how to send the job and how to receive scans directly, regardless of who made the device. The manufacturer driver still exists for older printers, but new installations default to the Ready Print path.
Three things fall out of this. Security improves, because Microsoft is no longer hosting tens of thousands of third-party driver packages that have to be individually vetted. Compatibility improves, because the same code path works the same way on x86 (the standard Intel/AMD desktop processor architecture) and ARM (the processor architecture used in modern efficient laptops and most smartphones) machines, and against printers from any manufacturer. Reliability improves, because Ready Print is part of Windows itself, so a Windows update cannot break it the way it can break a third-party driver.
Which devices actually support it
The hardware side is mostly fine. Mopria certification is widespread, and most printers sold in the last several years qualify automatically. If the printer can be printed to over Wi-Fi from a phone without installing anything, it is almost certainly a Mopria device, which means it qualifies for Ready Print.
The operating system side is more uneven. Ready Print has been rolling out gradually through Windows Insider builds (Microsofts preview channel where volunteers test bleeding-edge Windows versions before they ship to everyone), and Microsoft has indicated that eligible Windows 11 devices will start using Ready Print as the default for newly installed printers in mid-2026. If your PC is up to date, the toggle should already be live in Settings.
Two practical caveats from the source material. The change is not retroactive, so printers you have already set up will keep using whatever driver or connection method they were previously using. That is the right behavior. Trying to migrate thousands of working installs at once would be a worse outcome than letting old setups ride out their lifetime. And on managed devices, such as a work laptop or a school laptop, IT can override the default through Group Policy, which is Microsofts built-in mechanism for administrators to set policies across many PCs from a central location, so the user-facing toggle will appear grayed out and only the administrator can change the behavior.
How to turn it on (or off) on a regular PC
For most Windows 11 users, the toggle is the entire setup. Open Settings, go to Bluetooth & devices, click Printers & scanners, scroll to Printer preferences, and flip the Default install printers using Windows Ready Print switch. That is it. From that point on, any new printer you add will go through the Ready Print path unless you specifically install a manufacturer driver.
If the toggle is grayed out, the device is being managed, and you need to talk to whoever runs it. If you are the administrator, the path is the Group Policy Editor, opened via the Run dialog as gpedit.msc. Navigate to Local Computer Policy, then Administrative Templates, then Printers, and open Configure Windows Ready Print driver ranking. Set it to Enabled to allow Ready Print driver selection across the system, or Disabled to stick with traditional installation. The change applies at next policy refresh, which is usually within an hour or two.
One thing worth noting. Microsofts Group Policy phrasing, “driver ranking,” is a hint that the policy is not strictly on or off. It controls which driver source Windows prefers when more than one is available. In practice this means that even on a Ready Print-enabled PC, if you manually install a manufacturer driver for a specific printer, that driver will still take precedence. The system is designed to opt out of Ready Print per-device when needed, which is the right behavior for people who depend on a printer-specific feature such as color profiles, finishing options, or specialty paper handling.
What Ready Print does not fix
It is worth being honest about the limits. Ready Print cleans up the most common failure mode, which is “Windows update broke my printer,” but it does not make every printing problem go away.
- Specialty features vary by manufacturer. Duplex printing, paper size selection, and basic color settings will all work through Ready Print. Niche features, such as stapling, hole punching, specialty media trays, or custom color profiles, are not part of the standard protocol. If you rely on them, you still want the manufacturer driver for that specific printer.
- Older printers without Mopria certification still need the legacy driver path. If you have a six-year-old workhorse that does not advertise Wi-Fi printing, Ready Print is not going to do anything for you. It is opt-in only for compatible devices.
- Scanning is supported but limited. eSCL is fine for basic scans, but if your scanner has a sheet feeder or duplex-scan feature, you may need manufacturer software to drive it properly.
- The rollout is gradual. Even on a Ready Print-capable PC, the policy and the UI may not yet be active in your specific Windows build. That is an expected mismatch and not a bug, and the default behavior will catch up over the next several monthly updates.
The honest summary is that Ready Print solves a real, recurring problem for most home users, and leaves enough escape hatches that people with specialty setups can still opt out per-device.
Trade-offs
The Ready Print default is reasonable, but reasonable is not the same as right for everyone.
- For a home user with one current-generation Wi-Fi printer, the default is basically free. Turn it on, forget about it, and stop worrying about driver updates breaking the device.
- For a household with older printers or specialty devices, leaving Ready Print on is fine, because it is only used for new installs. Your existing printer setup will not change, so there is no downside to flipping the toggle today.
- For a small business or home office that relies on a specific printer feature, the manufacturer driver path is still available. You can install it manually and it will override Ready Print for that single device. The system is designed for that.
- For managed devices, the IT department has the final word. If your workplace has not configured the Group Policy yet, the user toggle will be grayed out, and that is by design.
The one real concern is that some users will read “Microsoft replaces third-party drivers” as “Microsoft is locking you in.” It is not that. Ready Print is built on open standards, IPP and eSCL, that any manufacturer can implement. The goal is fewer broken printers, not fewer printer brands.
What to do this week
If you have been ignoring your printer setup because the last update broke something, this is the week to clean it up. Two short steps:
- Flip the Ready Print toggle in Settings under Bluetooth & devices, Printers & scanners, Printer preferences. Takes 30 seconds.
- The next time you install a new printer, do not download the manufacturer software first. Let Windows handle it through Ready Print, and only install the manufacturer driver if you find a specific feature missing.
That is it. The boring version of “your printer problem is fixed for a while” is the one that actually holds up.