Known issue when launching RealVNC Server in Windows 10/11

We are aware of an issue currently affecting some Windows 10/11 users where the RealVNC Server process fails shortly after launching; the RealVNC Server icon also fails to show in the system tray.

If you experience this, you can check the Event Viewer in Windows - searching for "VNC Server" - to find the exact error code. It should look similar to this:

Faulting application name: vncserver.exe, version: 6.10.0.47347, time stamp: <xxxxxx>
Faulting module name: vncserver.exe, version: 6.10.0.47347, time stamp: <xxxxxx>
Exception code: 0xc0000409
Fault offset: 0x0000000000432695
Faulting process id: 0x16cc
Faulting application start time: <xxxxxxxxxx>
Faulting application path: C:\Program Files\RealVNC\VNC Server\vncserver.exe
Faulting module path: C:\Program Files\RealVNC\VNC Server\vncserver.exe

Our initial investigations suggest that this may be related to the recent Windows Update KB5015807.  This update has some known issues involved printing, noted on Microsoft's website here.

This appears to be an issue in Windows itself, so please ensure Windows is fully updated as Microsoft may have released an update that fixes the underlying issue.

If Windows is fully updated and you still experience this issue, a workaround for now is to disable the remote printing feature in RealVNC Server. You can disable remote printing by following these steps:

1. Open Registry Editor
2. Navigate to the key HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\RealVNC\vncserver
3. Create a new String value named EnableRemotePrinting
4. Set it to a value of  0
5. Try starting RealVNC Server again