DHL printers are NOT Windows 10 compatible

We’ve just discovered that the zillions of printers that DHL have handed out to their customers aren’t compatible with Windows 10.

DHL, like many couriers, prefer to keep their support simple and so supply a particular model of printer which they know works with their software and supports a standard label size. In DHL’s case it’s the Toshiba TEC B-EV4D thermal printer. The trouble is that Toshiba haven’t produced any drivers for Windows 10 and we understand it’ll be at least a couple more months until they do so.

I perhaps more correctly should say “If they ever do so”… The B-EV4D has been replaced by the B-FV4D and for both printers Toshiba are two releases of Windows behind on drivers. Toshiba only have drivers on their website for Windows 2000, XP, Vista and 7 – officially they don’t even support Windows 8 let alone Windows 10.

Personally I’ve upgraded all my laptops to Windows 10 and hadn’t until now found any compatibility issues with older software or devices. Microsoft appear to have done an amazingly good job on the Windows 10 update process and support pretty much everything… just not it would appear Toshiba printers.

If you’re thinking about updating your office computers the lesson learnt is to update one device and make sure it supports absolutely everything you need to run your business before updating all your machines.

A wider conversation might be the printer choices that couriers supply or recommend and what service level agreements they have with their chosen manufacturers for support of new operating systems in the future.

If DHL end up having to replace all their customers printers I’d imagine it would be a reasonably pricey exercise and not a process that they’d welcome. In the mean time their advice to customers appears to be to print out on A4 paper, fold in half and place in a document enclosed wallet – not an attractive choice to slapping a thermal label on 1,000s of parcels a day as we come into the busiest period of the year.