hackbar August 13, 2023 – NeoWin, a technology media outlet, reported yesterday (August 12, 2023) that Microsoft has officially opened the “Universal Print anywhere” feature to all Microsoft 365 users, leveraging cloud services to allow users to initiate print jobs from anywhere.
IT Home Note: The embryonic form of this feature can be traced back to Universal Print, a cloud-print management service launched by Microsoft in 2021, which allows enterprises to manage printing devices and tasks through the cloud platform, eliminating the need for traditional servers and driver installations. It is mainly used to optimize enterprise printing processes and is committed to eliminating the maintenance burden of traditional printing servers and drivers.
Microsoft revealed in November 2024 that it is developing a “pull print” feature (where users initiate a print job remotely, and upon arriving at any certified printer, the job is released and the document is retrieved after authentication), which allows all Microsoft 365 customers to initiate print jobs from anywhere without additional costs or the need to select a printer in advance.
According to the official description from Microsoft, user-initiated print jobs can be sent to any certified physical printer, and after organizational identity verification, the printing task can be initiated. The official statement indicates that this solution helps reduce environmental impact, as print jobs are only released when the user is present and has passed the verification, effectively reducing paper and consumable waste due to unclaimed prints.
For administrators, this feature enables direct device registration, configuration of secure release options, and presetting the range of available printers through Universal Print service or connector, enhancing organizational security and governance.