A bizarre bug in Microsoft’s Edge web browser is baffling users. Depending on the selected printer and other factors, attempting to print a PDF file, or use Edge’s ‘Print to PDF’ function, will cause random changes in the output. The changes are difficult to detect: we’re not talking about the usual kind of printer garbage. For example, users are reporting shifted cell numbers, added words and symbols, and substitution of words and characters.

If you’re printing invitations to a neighbourhood barbecue, this issue is unlikely to cause any serious problems, but what if you’re printing legal, medical, or architectural documents?

Microsoft hasn’t said much about this yet, but according to at least one bug report, they are at least aware of the problem. Which is good, because Microsoft just announced that Windows 10 is running on 500 million devices; Edge is the default browser on all those devices, and Print to PDF is the default printer on many.

My advice? If you use Windows 10, don’t use Edge at all if you can avoid it: try Firefox or Chrome. If you must use Edge, use a different PDF reader to view and print PDF files. Adobe’s Reader is free and actually works as expected.