In a shocking transfer, Microsoft has already moved its new WinUI 3-based Print Administration device into the Home windows 11 Launch Preview channel, bringing the decades-old printer administration utility a lot nearer to common PCs. We examined it on our check PC with the newest Launch Preview replace.
Home windows 11 Builds 26100.9267 and 26200.9267, also known as KB5120998, went out to Launch Preview on August 14, 2026, for each 24H2 and 25H2. Launch Preview is the final cease earlier than an replace reaches everybody, which makes this look extra important than the sooner sightings in Beta and Experimental builds.
Print Administration has existed as an MMC-style administrative console for years, largely untouched whereas Microsoft rebuilt a lot of the remainder of Home windows 11. Happily, as with a number of different legacy dialogs, 2026 is the 12 months Microsoft lastly began working by means of this backlog.
Microsoft’s new Home windows 11 Print Administration is already in Launch Preview
We’ve confirmed that the brand new Print Administration app is current in Launch Preview, following its earlier look in Beta and Experimental builds. We have been among the many first to identify it in early August, and covered the WinUI 3 rebuild in detail, when it was nonetheless an early Insider experiment, sitting alongside the previous MMC-based console with no phrase from Microsoft about changing it.
Microsoft often doesn’t ship half-baked experiments to the Launch Preview channel for Insiders, so its presence right here means it’s about to ship broadly.
The August non-compulsory replace is the following step
Right here’s how the rollout is shaping up:
- August 14: KB5120998 reached Launch Preview as builds 26100.9267 and 26200.9267.
- Late August: KB5120998 is predicted to change into the non-compulsory, non-security preview replace for supported Home windows 11 24H2 and 25H2 PCs.
- September 8 (second Tuesday): The modifications from the August preview are anticipated to roll into the common September cumulative replace, following Microsoft’s regular month-to-month servicing mannequin.
The September date isn’t assured, although. Microsoft might nonetheless maintain Print Administration again even when the remainder of KB5120998 strikes ahead on schedule. The corporate’s Launch Preview notes don’t particularly checklist Print Administration within the changelog both.
So, what precisely are Home windows 11 customers getting when this rolls out?
Home windows 11’s new Print Administration seems trendy, however Microsoft saved the helpful stuff
One have a look at the 2 variations facet by facet and the distinction is clear. The previous Print Administration console seems like a product that escaped from an older model of Home windows, full with a File/Motion/View/Assist menu bar and a cramped three-pane tree view straight out of Server Supervisor.
The brand new one seems like a Home windows 11 app, with a hamburger menu, trendy spacing, and dialogs that match the remainder of the OS.
The brand new Print Administration app remains to be a severe administration device
It isn’t only a display for selecting your default printer. Directors and energy customers can handle printers and print queues, printer drivers, printer ports, print servers, shared printers, and driver configuration. Our earlier testing discovered all of those areas stay out there, simply reorganized.
The primary window presents All Printers, All Drivers, Printers Not Prepared, and Printers with Jobs by means of a contemporary sidebar, alongside a Print Servers part that expands to point out Drivers, Varieties, Ports, and Printers.
The column selector has been modernized too, letting you decide what exhibits up within the checklist, together with printer identify, queue standing, jobs in queue, server identify, driver identify, and driver model, by means of a clear Add/Take away Columns panel as a substitute of a cramped right-click menu.
Rename Printer is now a easy trendy dialog with a single textual content area and OK/Cancel buttons.
Driver Properties nonetheless exhibits the identical data as earlier than with driver file paths, config recordsdata, dependent recordsdata, specified by a scrollable checklist that’s simpler to learn.
The printer migration display additionally confirms Microsoft isn’t stripping out the executive facet of the device, letting you overview which print queues, drivers, and ports are about to get exported.
And sure, this confirms that there’s nonetheless some legacy baggage left. Earlier testing additionally discovered customers needed to launch the app with Run as administrator manually, and a few dialogs nonetheless open the older-looking interface. Don’t name this a whole substitute but, as Microsoft might nonetheless change the app, delay it, or hold the traditional MMC model working along with it. Launch Preview makes the broader rollout way more seemingly, but it surely doesn’t affirm Microsoft has formally retired the previous console.
Microsoft is lastly cleansing up Home windows 11’s legacy UI
For the previous few months, Home windows Newest has been monitoring Microsoft’s work on switching legacy components in Home windows 11 to WinUI 3, versus the sooner behavior of including darkish mode onto decades-old code!
March Rogers, Microsoft’s Associate Director of Design, confirmed the new File Explorer Properties dialog was rebuilt in WinUI 3 from scratch, with extra of Home windows UI getting related remedy.
Microsoft has additionally been working through the old file-copy dialogs, the Run dialog, and other legacy pieces one at a time this 12 months.
The Run dialog rewrite is an efficient instance of the payoff, with Microsoft’s telemetry exhibiting the brand new WinUI 3 model loading in 94ms, sooner than the 103ms median for the Home windows 95-era model it changed.
Autoplay is subsequent in line, and Windows Latest already got a look at its new design, transferring from a small top-right flyout to a correct centered dialog for the primary time since Home windows 7.
In fact, making a printer window prettier isn’t the vital half right here. And we aren’t justifying the corporate’s resolution to do all this work after the backlash that Home windows 11 has amassed. Both manner, Microsoft is lastly touching the much less glamorous components of Home windows that most individuals hardly ever see till they want them.
Print Administration isn’t a headline characteristic, but it surely’s a part of the cleanup Home windows wants. If Microsoft can modernize these previous administrative instruments with out taking away the controls energy customers depend upon, Home windows 11 will slowly cease feeling like a number of generations of the OS stitched collectively.
