Will your old printer work on Windows 11? Microsoft's printer-driver end-of-servicing dates, and what the IPP class driver covers

Who this guide is for and what to prepare

• Readers who replaced a PC and want to keep using the printer they already own
• Readers puzzled that the queue shows "Microsoft IPP Class Driver" after installing the maker's driver
• Readers buying a printer who want to factor the driver roadmap into the choice

What you need

• Have the printer's exact model number to hand (the body label, or the device information on its settings page)
• Check your Windows version with `winver` - this change applies to Windows 11 and later and Windows Server 2025 and later
• Be able to see the printer's driver name (Settings, then Bluetooth & devices, then Printers & scanners)

1. Read Microsoft's timeline exactly as published

The starting point is not speculation but a single table on Microsoft Learn. Its heading is "Deprecation Timeline Calendar - Update", and immediately below it the page states "May 2025 update – Printer driver timeline date adjustment." In other words the dates have been moved once already, so a date you read somewhere else may no longer be the current one. The table below is what the page carried when this site read it on 2026-09-20.

The important thing is that this is not a schedule of when printers stop working. It is a schedule for how drivers are distributed and updated. Every entry is about publication to Windows Update, signing approval, or whether updates are allowed.

As of 2026-09-20, two of the four stages - 15 January 2026 and 1 July 2026 - have already passed. Whatever a reader is experiencing right now is usually explained by one of those two.

2. What ends is distribution and updating, not printing

The FAQ on the same page answers several of the worries a reader brings to it, and answers them in the negative. Reading the timeline without the FAQ is how people talk themselves into a replacement they do not need.

Installation itself does not stop. The page says: "Windows will continue to allow vendor-supplied printer drivers to be installed via separate installation packages." Running an installer downloaded from the maker's own site is a route the timeline does not close. For drivers already released, the page states that existing printer drivers can be installed on Windows PCs, even after the end of servicing.

Features are not being withdrawn either. Asked whether Microsoft plans to remove existing features supported by v3 and v4 printer drivers as part of the plan, the answer is: "There are no plans to disable print features specifically related to the legacy printer driver platform." On security, the page says Microsoft will continue to issue security fixes related to the legacy printer driver platform while the Windows OS version is still within the Microsoft Support Lifecycle.

The scope is limited too. Asked whether end of servicing applies to all versions of Windows, the page answers: "This change applies to Windows 11+ and Windows Server 2025+." A Windows 10 machine is not covered by this timeline.

3. Why it keeps turning into the IPP Class Driver

This is the most common form the question takes. You installed the maker's driver, and the printer is still listed as "Microsoft IPP Class Driver".

The third row of the timeline is the answer: on 1 July 2026, "Printer driver ranking order modified to always prefer Windows IPP inbox class driver." Ranking order is how Windows picks among several drivers that all match one printer. That order now always prefers the IPP class driver, so the IPP side can be chosen even when a maker driver is present.

The mechanism itself is older than the timeline. The page's overview states that with the release of Windows 10 21H2, Windows offers inbox support for Mopria compliant printer devices over network and USB interfaces via the Microsoft IPP Class Driver, and that this "removes the need for print device manufacturers to provide their own installers, drivers, utilities, and so on". Maker-specific screens move to Print Support Apps, which the page describes as "distributed and automatically installed via the Windows Store". IPP class driver plus Print Support App is the two-part replacement for the legacy v3 and v4 drivers.

One thing this site could not establish: the page says nothing about how to explicitly select the maker's driver again after the ranking change. We do not invent a procedure, so check with your printer maker for the model-specific answer.

4. Multi-function devices: print, fax and scan are not covered equally

If your device also scans and faxes, this is the practical fork in the road. Asked "Will multi-function devices (print, scan, fax) work over IPP?", the page answers "Yes, they will" and then states different conditions for network and USB.

For network devices, "the Print and Fax endpoints will work via IPP and IPP Fax Out, respectively, while the Scan endpoint will work via WS-Scan or eSCL". For USB devices, the answer is conditional: "the endpoints will only be accessible when the USB interface is in IPP Over USB mode which means IPP for Print, IPP Fax Out for Fax, and only eSCL for Scan."

The practical reading is simple. If you only ever use the device over USB, whether it supports IPP Over USB mode is the deciding factor. If the model can go on the network at all, your options widen. Before considering a replacement, it is worth seeing whether you can change how the device is connected.

5. Check whether your printer falls inside this arrangement

Everything above is built on the printer being Mopria compliant. So where do you find out whether yours is?

Microsoft's page does not tell you where to check. The place is the Mopria Alliance's certified-products search. Read on 2026-09-20, it is a search form filtered by manufacturer and product type (Printers & MFPs, Scanner, Print Server, Software and others), and the manufacturer list included Brother, Canon, EPSON, Kyocera, Konica Minolta, Ricoh, Sharp, Toshiba TEC, FUJIFILM Business Innovation, Oki, NEC, HP, Lexmark and Xerox among others. The results themselves load after the page opens, so this site did not retrieve any per-model list. Look up your own model number there.

Microsoft's text also gives an indirect clue. Among the "Conditions when a driver package can be signed", the first is "A printer that cannot be Mopria certified." An exception to driver signing is being kept open precisely for models that cannot get Mopria certification - which is another way of saying that Mopria certification is the assumption behind the new arrangement. The same list also includes driver package submissions specifying a ceiling of Windows 10 or lower, and native ARM64 printer drivers.

6. Replace, or keep

Taken together, nothing on Microsoft's page supports jumping straight to "I moved to Windows 11, so I need a new printer". What the timeline stops is new distribution through Windows Update and future updates - not printing.

Replacement is worth considering seriously in three situations. First, when the maker publishes no Windows 11 driver for the model and the model has no Mopria certification: neither inbox support nor the maker-installer route is available to you. Second, when you rely on scanning from a USB-only multi-function device that does not support IPP Over USB mode. Third, when a driver-dependent feature your work actually needs - a particular media path or finishing option - is not offered through a Print Support App.

Conversely, if the model can go on the network, is Mopria certified, and you use it for ordinary printing and scanning, there is at present nothing in this timeline that forces a replacement. Even after 1 July 2027, the page keeps both the installation route for existing drivers and the continuation of security fixes on the record.

If you do replace it, the basis for choosing is a different axis entirely. For running cost - cartridge versus ink tank versus laser - see this site's guide to printer page yield.

Limitations and requirements

• This timeline was revised once, in May 2025. The page itself states "May 2025 update – Printer driver timeline date adjustment.", so if a date you saw elsewhere disagrees, prefer Microsoft's current page. This site read it on 2026-09-20; the page's own last-updated stamp is 2025-05-09.
• The Japanese edition of this page is a translation of the English one and reads awkwardly in places. Where the Japanese is hard to follow, read the English original alongside it.
• What ends is servicing of the legacy v3 and v4 printer driver platform. That is separate from the maker's hardware warranty or its repair-support period, on which Microsoft's page says nothing.
• The page gives no procedure for explicitly reselecting the maker's driver after the ranking-order change. This site does not supply one by guesswork.
• You cannot check Mopria certification from Microsoft's page. Look the model up in the Mopria Alliance search. This site has not verified the certification status of any individual model.

Frequently asked questions

Sources and verification date

Sources checked: 2026-09-20. These sources support the specifications, procedures or prices discussed here. Check each source for applicable conditions and current information.

• Microsoft Learn: End of servicing plan for third-party printer drivers on Windows (Japanese edition). Used here as the source of the Japanese-language quotations in the Japanese edition of this guide; identical content to the English page. Page last-updated stamp 2025-05-09. Read 2026-09-20 ↗
• Microsoft Learn: End of servicing plan for third-party printer drivers on Windows (English original). Four-stage Deprecation Timeline Calendar, the May 2025 date-adjustment note, the overview describing the Microsoft IPP Class Driver and Print Support Apps, the three driver-signing exceptions, and the FAQ on installation routes, existing drivers, affected versions, security fixes and multi-function devices over IPP. Page last-updated stamp 2025-05-09. Read 2026-09-20 ↗
• Mopria Alliance: certified-products search page. Confirmed that it is a search form filtered by manufacturer and product type (Printers & MFPs, Scanner, Print Server, Software and others) and noted the brands in the manufacturer list. Results load dynamically, so no per-model list was retrieved by this site. Read 2026-09-20 ↗

Related practical guides

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Microsoft's published end-of-servicing roadmap for legacy v3 and v4 printer drivers (September 2023, 15 January 2026, 1 July 2026, 1 July 2027) and the scope covered by the Microsoft IPP Class Driver plus Print Support Apps troubleshooting

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