UPD 7.3 and above - Clone printer

[turntable]

Hello.

We are in the process to update HP UPD for all our customers to V 7.3 or above because of serious security vulnerabilities in prior versions.

While updating all network printer worked flawlessly (about 1000 devices) we now have a serious problem on updating USB connected printers which are widely used by our customers for POS systems.

The problem is that with all prior versions it was possible to "clone" a printer object in Windows (create second identical printer with identical local port) to get two printer objects in Windows so that you can use one physical printer with different settings (e.g. different printer bays).

If you try to "clone" a printer with UPD 7.3 or later the process hangs infinitely. To be sure we setup new test systems from scratch with different versions of HP UPD which always show exactly the same reproducible result.

Please forward this to development so that they could fix the issue.

Our customers have to update their UPD due to security reasons, but are not able because the described functionality is essential for use with their ERP systems.

As this works flawlessly with prior versions of UPD (which is not an option) and printers from other vendors have no issues with this, our customers will switch printer vendor for their POS systems if HP is not addressing this issue.

Thank you very much.

[Max3Aj]

@turntable, Hello and welcome to the HP Support Community!

Thanks for posting your question. I'm here to help you get things back on track.

We understand how critical this functionality is for your POS systems and appreciate your efforts in testing and documenting the behavior across different UPD versions.

 

With HP UPD version 7.3 and above, cloning a USB-connected printer (i.e., creating a second printer object using the same local port) causes the process to hang indefinitely. This functionality worked in earlier versions and is essential for your ERP workflows.

 

Recommended Workaround:

While HP has not yet released an official fix for this specific cloning issue, here are a few steps you can try:

Use HP Smart Universal Printing Driver (Smart UPD): HP has introduced the Smart UPD as an alternative to the traditional UPD. It may offer better compatibility with USB and POS environments. You can learn more and download it here: HP Printers - Latest Smart Universal Printing Driver (Smart UPD) version (v3.06.2.2503) is NOT avail...

Create Separate Printer Queues via Command Line: Use the PrintUI command to manually create a second printer instance:

rundll32 printui.dll,PrintUIEntry /if /b "Printer Clone" /f "C:\Path\To\Driver.inf" /r "USB001" /m "HP Universal Printing PCL 6"

Replace the driver path and model name as appropriate. This method bypasses the GUI and may avoid the hang.

>HP Universal Print Driver Series for Windows - Troubleshooting | HP® Support
 

I hope the information shared has been useful and resolves your concern.

Wishing you a smooth and hassle-free experience ahead!

If this solution helped, please click “Accepted Solution” so others can benefit too. Don’t forget to hit the “Yes” button if you found this helpful!

Warm regards,

Max3Aj

HP Support

[turntable]

Hello Max3Aj.

Thanks for you reply.

"rundll32 printui.dll,PrintUIEntry /if /b "Printer Clone" ...... is exactly what we use in our scripts to deploy the systems. We just tried it with the GUI to rule out any problems with the CLI approach.

Also in prior versions of HP UPD this command took quite long to finish but was successful (about 5 minutes), but with the new version we canceled the process after hanging for 15 minutes.

We also tries with the latest HP UPD 7.7 from the website and found that with this version on a completely fresh system our test printer (HP LaserJet Enterprise M406) is even no longer recognizes as printer. This means that it is shown in the control panel "Devices an Printers" in the category "Unspecified" and no longer under "Printer" and as such cannot be used at all.

Kind Regards

[Max3Aj]

@turntable, Thank you for your response,  

I'm sending a private message to assist you with the next action. 

  

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Max3Aj

HP Support 

[turntable]

Hello Max3Aj.

For the UPD 7.3 we found a workaround. When cloning the printer we specify "LPT1:" as printer port for the target printer on the command line. When the command is finished we change port to "USB001". This also leads to the fact that cloning the printer finishes after about 30 seconds and not 5 minutes as we see it with UPD prior 7.3. And as already said with UPD >= 7.3 this command hangs infinitely when using port "USB001" or via GUI.

Problem with UPD 7.7 which still exists, that printer is not recognised as printer at all but as Unspecified device.

Kind Regards