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

2014-09-24T19:43:56+00:00

You are adding to a post that is 3+ years old

Is any HP printer software shown in the Programs & features dialogue?
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Anonymous

2014-09-24T17:12:39+00:00

Followed all the steps, but when I finally trey to delete the printer again, it says

"Driver HP Deskjet 3000 J310 series (x64) is in use. It is used on:

HP Deskjet 3000 J310 series (Network)"

But that printer has been long gone to recycling. There must be some way to get it off the list, right?
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LemP 74,970 Reputation points Volunteer Moderator

2014-09-23T16:47:39+00:00

None of the above actions worked. The problem began when I went to "Control Panel --> Hardware and Sound --> Devices and Printers" When selecting "View Devices and Printers" the progress bar simply goes across the top of the window and never completes. Attempting to use the delete printers advice by BartHendrick, above, none of the deletions were applied. The print spooler was stopped, restarted and stopped, and the other instructions followed. No success. There are only two printers installed, a HP 4000 Laserjet and an HP 650 Scanjet. The HP650 software was reloaded from the CD, with negative results. Both printers are plugged into the router and can be seen when scanning for ports in use (192.168.1.104 and 192.168.1.106). Do you think that the good old Windows Last Resort of "wiping the hard drive and starting over again" will work. I've tried the various restore points and none of them solve the problem, BTW.

This is a 6 page thread that started over 4 years ago, so I have no idea what you mean by "none of the above actions worked." You really should have asked your own new question.

Why don't you start by explaining what version of Windows you have, including service pack?

Printer-related problems often are caused either by malware, by poorly-designed antimalware programs, or by use of registry cleaners, system tuners, and the like. So please provide the name and version of your antivirus program, any other security software installed, and any registry cleaners, system tuners, or similar programs you may have used.

Please explain your problem in a little more detail. I understand that Devices and Printers doesn't populate, but can you print? What happens when you try? What happened when you ran printui /s /t2 from an elevated Command Prompt? What happened when you attempted to delete the printer drivers and/or ports from the Print Server Properties dialog?

If you get any error messages, please provide the complete text without paraphrasing.

To answer your question, yes, "wiping the hard drive and starting over again" -- assuming that you have the correct media, license keys, patience, and knowledge to do that -- would almost certainly work, but that would be vastly overkill for a problem related to uninstalling printers.

Assuming that you have some version of Windows 7, that your system isn't compromised with malware or by having run a registry cleaner, running the "Full mode" Fixit discussed in the following article should remove all of your printers --> http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2793718?wa=wsignin1.0 If that didn't solve the problem, a log file should have been created on your Desktop. Please copy and paste the contents of that log into your Reply.
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