Microsoft slaps Windows 11 update hold on hardware connected to eSCL devices

Microsoft has confirmed that Windows 11 24H2 has issues with USB-connected devices that support the Scanner Communication Language (eSCL) protocol. A compatibility hold has been applied to the hardware. The hold means that hardware connected to a USB device supporting the eSCL protocol will not be offered an upgrade to Windows …

[Zoopy]

So what I'm hearing is...

we can use USB devices to prevent unwanted Windows updates?

Totally worth it.

[IGotOut]

Hi ...

....just to let you know, that thing that's worked for years and years....yeah we broke it. No idea how we did, but there you go.

Sorry?

But hey, your fax wil soon have AI.

[el_oscuro]

Re: Hi ...

I still have a fax - connected to second phone line. And I still use it enough to justify that line.

[Doctor Syntax]

"there are probably more fax machines screeching away than Windows on Arm users."

Given all the break-in caused outages and Windows update fails anyone with a fax machine would be well advised to keep it and make sure customers etc. have the number. There's value in stuff that works.

[Ian Johnston]

I work occasionally with a Japanese school which has a UK outpost, and they send faxes to and fro all the time.

[Stuart Castle]

At this point, is there anything you can have installed on Windows that doesn't block the upgrade? We have this, Ubisoft games, various drivers.. What else?

[Strahd Ivarius]

Fax is still in use

for a big German retailer, when ordering products.

(no, it is not Aldi, try again)

and was not a British rail company caught using it a few weeks ago?

[PRR]

I was called by a FAX last week. It was painfully fun to hear the old ScreeeecH (burble) ScreeeecH again. I let it time itself out because they had no business FAXing me and I have no obligation to save them time and tolls.

Looking back: last time I FAXed was a long-distance real estate deal in 2007. We took papers to the UPS store which did FAXes half-buck a page. I've had four many-function printers with FAX function and even have the phone line extended to that table but it hasn't been used in a decade+. A more recent land deal was all PDF and "secure digital signatures".