Microsoft announces Universal Print anywhere which lets users print their documents anywhere, regardless of servers and drivers

Microsoft’s Universal Print is adding two significant features to its repertoire, making it live up to its name more than ever. MacOS is now supported within the Universal Print infrastructure as part of a public preview that will go into full general availability by December 2024. Universal Print anywhere, the feature commonly known as “pull print,” is now in public preview. It allows users to securely release their print jobs to any printer in the organization.

In a blog post, Microsoft says Universal Print is a service that enables Windows users to print to any device within their organization’s cloud infrastructure. It’s designed to simplify managing print capabilities across a fleet of printers, eliminating the need for print servers and driver installations.

With macOS support, Microsoft aims to appeal to admins who might have otherwise been hesitant to adopt Universal Print due to the need to support Macs. Full support for Mac devices running macOS Ventura 13.1 or later will be available to preview by enabling the feature in the Azure Portal.

Microsoft is also launching a new Universal Print app for Mac in the App Store. This app lets users discover printers and print them from any Mac application.

Universal Print anywhere, meanwhile, allows users to print from anywhere and securely release their jobs to any printer in an organization. It builds on existing functionality, such as a secure release with QR codes from the Microsoft 365 mobile app. It introduces the ability for admins to configure print options for a Universal Print anywhere printer share. For example, an admin might be able to prevent users from color printing or changing the number of copies.

Microsoft says the deployment architecture for Universal Print anywhere is the same as before. Printers are registered to Universal Print directly or through the Universal Print connector, and when they’re registered, admins can configure the secure release option for each. Universal Print Anywhere allows admins to set an organizational hierarchy location to provide a common end-user printer discovery experience, asset tracking, and print option management.

It also supports printers from partners like Canon, HP, Konica Minolta, Kyocera, Lexmark, Ricoh, Sharp, and Toshiba, with more expected to be added.

The new features should be available in preview for everyone today.

In other news, Microsoft also announced many new services for IT managers and developers, including the new Azure AI Foundry and a new device, Windows 365 Link, that encourages users to migrate to cloud computing.