I want to remove/delete printer/driver from Windows 7, and unable to find any documentation.

Anonymous

New DELL computer Windows 7 (less than 30 days old), and want to remove/delete persistant printer/driver.

Was not able to find any documentation on the issue, and neither DELL nor Microsoft are willing to provide any kind of support unless its paid for a product/service that is less than 30 days old.

Locked Question. This question was migrated from the Microsoft Support Community. You can vote on whether it's helpful, but you can't add comments or replies or follow the question.

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Anonymous

OK, I have found the solution to this problem... the info above is correct as far as it goes, but in my case there was (a) no option to clear the print queue on two 'ghost' printers because they were disconnected and unavailable, so no option for the print queue was displayed, and (b) one was shared on the network and had a TCP/IP printer port assigned to it.

Here's how I did it, step-by-step:

right-click on desktop, create a new shortcut with target as 'cmd.exe'.
right-click on the shortcut, "Run as Administrator"
Run the printui tool: printui /s /t2
Try deleting the printers. If that doesn't work...
CLick Start > Run > Services.msc
Locate the Print Spooler service, and right-click > Properties > stop service.
Open My Computer and browse to c:\Windows\System32\spool\Printers

(you will need to say "oK" to get access to the folder).

DELETE the contents of that folder.
Restart the Print Spooler service.
Go back into the printui utillity (might need to restart it using same method as above) and try removing printers again. This time it should work. If necessary, check the "Ports" tab and remove any TCP/IP ports that are associated with the old printer.
Last but not least, I checked other computers on my home network to see if any of those had mapped to the old printer, and I removed those mappings, as the date of spooled documents suggested it was printed to long after it was physically removed.

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Anonymous

You can remove print drivers that are not associated with a local printer or connection using the printui.exe tool

in an admin elevated command prompt type

printui /s /t2

Be sure to remove the driver AND the package.

Alan Morris Windows Printing Team; Search the Microsoft Knowledge Base here: http://support.microsoft.com/search/Default.aspx?adv=1

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69 additional answers

Anonymous

2014-06-13T00:14:04+00:00

You will need to remove the connection to the printer in all user profiles. If USER1 has a connection to XEROX DRIVER1 and you log on as an admin user to delete the driver, the connection created by USER1 must be removed before the admin can delete the resource since it is in use by the other user. Do this for all the user accounts on the machine.
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Anonymous

2014-06-12T16:26:13+00:00

By the way, you don't have to log in as admin (from a main windoze login screen), however you do need admin rights in at least a command prompt window.

In that admin window run [C: or wherever your OS resides] \windows\system32\printmanagement.msc

I'm on a 32-bit W7 pro machine so it may be different for a 64-bit machine.
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Anonymous

2014-06-12T15:36:41+00:00

You can remove print drivers that are not associated with a local printer or connection using the printui.exe tool

in an admin elevated command prompt type

printui /s /t2

Be sure to remove the driver AND the package.

Alan Morris Windows Printing Team; Search the Microsoft Knowledge Base here: http://support.microsoft.com/search/Default.aspx?adv=1

I have a user that all of a sudden is unable to connect to our Xerox printers. she can connect to the HP printers on the print server fine but when I try to connect her to a Xerox it says printer not found. I can log in as administrator on her machine and add the Xerox printers fine. I can log onto my pc as her and I can add Xerox printers fine so the issue is in her profile but I have no idea what to do.

I have tried this fix and it still says the driver is in use. I stop the spooler service and it tells me to start the spooler service. I start in safe mode and it says to start the print spool service. I am at my wits end.

This user has a very complicated profile and very picky so if I can keep from blowing out her profile and starting over that would mean the world to me.
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