Updating to version from 23H2 to 24H2

Question

After updating to version from 23H2 to 24H2, we are seeing lots of issues with applications screen goes black in few machines. If we print any excel document, it says printing and it will freeze the excel. We cant even force close the application from task manager. The only way to close is from CMD (taskkill). Any suggestions?

Answer 1

Dear @Gorrela, Yeshwanth

Thank you for posting your question in the Microsoft Q&A forum.

Based on your description, you are facing the issue about screen goes black in few machines after updating version from 23H2 to 24H2 and it will freeze when printing the excel. For better understand your issue, could you please verify for us some information as:

• When Excel hangs, does it also hang when printing to “Microsoft Print to PDF”?
• Does it free when printing the excel only on one user or many users have that issue?

In the meantime, here are some suggestions you can try to fix your issue:

1.Check Office build (Excel → File → Account → About Excel) and install the latest updates for your channel. Some printing regressions were corrected in mid‑2025 cumulative updates. (If “Print to PDF” is missing/broken on 24H2, that was also patched via 2025 updates.) 

2. Excel → Print freeze isolation

• Try printing to “Microsoft Print to PDF” or “Microsoft XPS Document Writer”..
  • If the issue still occurs (e.g., freezing): It’s likely caused by a problem between Excel and the Windows print system (print stack).
  • If the issue does not occur: That suggests the problem is specific to the printer driver or the printer queue you're using.
• Clear cache spooler

Run CMD

net stop spooler
del /Q /F "%systemroot%\System32\spool\PRINTERS\*.*"
net start spooler

3. Black screen / blank desktop

• When it happens, press Win+Ctrl+Shift+B to reset the display driver (listen for a beep/vibration). If the screen remains blank, try Ctrl+Alt+Del → Task Manager → File → Run new task → explorer.exe (with admin). This sequence recovers Explorer on many 24H2 devices exhibiting the symptom
• If this helps, update to the latest OEM GPU driver (Intel/NVIDIA/AMD) that’s marked for Windows 11 24H2 / WDDM 3.2, then reboot. Because Windows 24H2 includes WDDM 3.2, and hardware vendors have released updated drivers to help reduce issues like screen flickering and black screens that appear after logging in.

Note: If you use security software (e.g., CrowdStrike), check your policies, as conflicts have been reported to cause Office crashes.

If you've tried the methods above but they didn't work, you can revert to the previous version 23H2 for a better experience.
Also, we'd recommend you share your valuable feedback about the feature in Send feedback to Microsoft with the Feedback Hub app. The Product Team is in-charge of the feedback site, and they are constantly checking the comments and feedback from our customer. Many features have been developed or improved based on users' comment.     

I hope information above helpful, if you get stuck in any steps or have any other questions, please feel free to reach out

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Answer 2

Hi , We are receiving this error when trying to print from SAP.

This is all happening atter the 24 H2 update

Answer 3

Hello Darren,

Thanks for responding back.

The issue Re- printing is not for one use- It's for multiple users in the Org. I don't think the fix will be a print spooler. Users using 23H2 can print fine where as who are updated to 24H2 facing lot's of issues.

Even with Adobe, the application wont even respond. It says instance of adobe caused error. Tried reinstalling again and repair. But no luck.

Microsoft print to pdf works fine , but the excel to printer wont work. Even we cant cancel that. Only way to do is to force kill in CMD.