I read the article and am not sure if this will be implemented in Windows 10 or not. I still use a 20 year old HP laserjet via Vista drivers that install OK for now, will I be forced to get a new printer?
And you can even get AirPrint compatibility. My Samsung laser printer driver wasn't working on Apple Silicon anymore (the printer is from 2007) but since CUPS supports it and AirPrint doesn't seem to require too much from a printer I was able to get it working fine with a Pi. And it's handier to use than ever before.
Windows 10 will meet EOL in 2025, which coincides with the ceasing of publishing printer drivers to Windows Update. Anything beyond that likely won't apply since Windows 10 past 2025 will either be out of support or only getting security updates.
The key point here is that Microsoft will refuse to WHQL-sign or publish third-party printer drivers from 2027 onwards.
Third-party drivers, without WHQL-signing, will continue to be installable past 2027 on the provided timeline if the manufacturer provides them.
Presumably there exists (or will exist?) a WHQL-signed minidriver that passes any processing step to a userland process?
It is only for resource-constrained machines of the early-1990s that printer-drivers needed any kind of kernel-level access to a system; with IPP and modern USB stacks no-longer needing any kind of kernel module, I'm not seeing how this should be a problem for anyone except domestic spy agencies losing the ability to
suppeptiously intercept every printed document.
In response to these comments, I can only point to the instructions I followed, from this 2016 post[0].
"The HP forums say it’s not possible, but it’s actually pretty easy to do. [...] Windows will try to install it and it will look like it’s installed but it wont actually work. You’ll be able to see it in the device manager as an “unspecified device”, but you wont be able to print."