How to completely remove the Windows 7 printer driver. Why can't I remove a network printer in Windows? Application uninstall panel
A device driver is called a complex software(software), which is designed to communicate installed equipment with the operating system. The development of this software is carried out by programmers from device developers (printers, video cards, and so on). Modern Windows can work with some components using built-in drivers, but for printers you often have to install them manually.
You may need to uninstall the printer driver in two cases:
- A failure occurred and the device began to malfunction due to faulty software.
- A new printer was purchased, but its driver conflicts with the old one (from the previous equipment) - that is, a software conflict has arisen.
To solve the problem, you should uninstall the printer driver. For different Windows versions the sequence of actions will be different.
Important! The printer must be disconnected from the computer when removing the drivers, and if you need to reinstall the software, then turn it on again.
Windows XP
Step 1. Call the “Start” menu, hover the mouse cursor over the “Settings” line, then select “Printers and Faxes”.
Step 2.
Step 3. A window will open, in it click on the “Drivers” tab.
Step 4. Now select the printer whose drivers you want to remove and click the corresponding button.
The software will be removed from the system.
Windows 7 or Vista
Step 1.
Reference! If there is no “Devices and Printers” line in the “Start” menu, open “Control Panel” and go to the specified item in it.
Step 2. In the window, select the appropriate printer and click on it. Click “Print Server Properties”.
Step 3.
Step 4. If there is more than one printer in the system, then you need to select the one whose software you want to remove and click on the corresponding button.
Windows 8 and 10
Step 1. Call "Control Panel". This process must be performed through the search bar, or by pressing the key combination “Win” + “X”.
Step 2. In the “View” mode, select the “Category” value. At the very bottom - “Uninstall a program”.
Step 3. In the list, you should find your printer and delete everything associated with it by selecting the lines with the left mouse click, after holding down the “Ctrl” key, and clicking on the “Delete” option.
Step 4. Then return to the “Control Panel” - “Hardware and Sound” section and click on the “View devices and printers” link.
Step 5. If there is a previously deleted model in the list, then you need to delete it here too - call the context menu with the right mouse button - and click the “Delete device” item.
Cleaning traces in the registry using the CCleaner utility
The last point is . It is best to do this not manually, but using the CCleaner utility, which is free. It can be downloaded and used to remove system junk. As a result of regular installation and removal of programs and updates, unnecessary files accumulate on your hard drive that need to be periodically deleted. The utility can also clean the registry - system base data, data is stored here about all software (settings) and about Windows itself.
After downloading and installing, you need to run the program. The first time it will check for updates.
Step 1. In the right column, click on the “Register” item.
Step 2. In the central part there is a list of error checking options. All items will be automatically checked, if not all, we will mark them. Click "Search for problems".
Step 3. A list of errors will appear in the center - right. If they are all checked, then you need to click on the “Fix selected” button.
Step 4. You will be prompted to create a backup copy; it is better to do it and save it on an external drive.
Step 5. Next comes the error correction process. The program will ask how to fix each error. If there are a lot of them, for example, 100 errors. Making a decision every time is too tiring. It is better to entrust this matter to the utility by clicking “Fix marked”.
Removing drivers using Driver Fusion
This utility helps you work with drivers. Suitable for those who do not want to delve into the operation of the system or the structure of the Windows registry.
Main functions of the program:
- checking drivers installed on the system (searching for more recent versions);
- complete removal of system software;
- creating a backup driver archive.
The utility is able to identify devices from most manufacturers. When performing critical actions (installing/uninstalling drivers), Driver Fusion always creates a restore checkpoint. If the Windows system becomes unstable, you can undo all changes.
Advice! If problems arise when uninstalling software, it is recommended to restart Windows in by pressing and holding the “F8” key. will appear boot menu, in which you should select “Safe Mode”.
How to download and install
Step 1. We go to a reliable website or the website of the developer of this utility by entering a request in search bar any browser.
Step 2.
Step 3. In the page that opens, click the “Download” button. You must specify the folder in which the file will be placed.
Step 4. As a result, the hard disk will contain executable file- about 4 MB. It needs to be launched.
Step 5. Click "OK".
Step 6. The installation wizard will inform you that there is a premium version that can be purchased, click “Next”.
Step 7 A license agreement will appear, read it if you wish, and click “I Accept.”
Step 8 Select the installation location as desired by clicking on the “Browse” button. Or leave it as default - “C:” - “Program Files (x86)” - “Driver Fusion”, clicking “Install”.
Working with the Driver Fusion utility
Step 1. At work Windows desktop An executable file will appear, run it by double clicking the mouse.
Step 2. In the main program window, expand the “Driver family” section.
Step 4. In the open window you will see a list of almost all printer manufacturers; you need to left-click on the icon with the name of your printer.
Step 5. After selection, the “Delete” option will become active at the bottom of the window; you need to click on it.
The program will ask for confirmation twice. In some cases, you will have to restart your PC.
Ways to find the right driver for a new printer
There are times when no CDs (or DVDs) with software are found for the printer. This often happens if equipment is purchased secondhand or on the market. Then you will have to look for software on your own - on the Internet. First you will have to find out the brand and model of the MFP or printer.
If the brand name is often printed on the front panels - Canon, HP (and others), then it is recommended to look for the model name either at the bottom of the device or on the side panel (usually on the back). A rectangle (nameplate) indicating technical information and manufacturer information. The model is indicated in the format (example in the photo): Lexmark MS510dn.
Step 1. We enter this information into the search line of the system (Google or Yandex). It is important to focus on the website of real manufacturers.
All manufacturers post driver files on their own official websites.
Step 2. Now you need to select the OS type, its version and software language and download drivers, setup instructions (if any), as well as the programs included with it.
Possible problems with installing and uninstalling MFP or printer software
In rare cases (especially if multiple printers are connected to the same PC), problems may occur. The device begins to work incorrectly or stops functioning altogether. If sequential removal and reinstallation of drivers does not lead to anything, then it is recommended to perform the following steps:
If any device is removed from the system, it is recommended to remove it. If errors occur, you need to use special utilities or uninstall the software manually. Before purchasing used equipment, check its functionality.
Also carefully study the documentation: some printers need to be configured correctly, especially if two or more devices are connected to one PC.
Video - Completely uninstalling printer drivers manually
Printer once and for all. This question, to be honest, is not as complicated as it might seem at first glance. In general, getting rid of any driver requires the right approach. Otherwise, it will not be possible to complete the process. So let's try to solve the problem assigned to us today.
Control Panel
Printer? XP, 7, 8, 10, Vista or any other operating system you have installed - it doesn’t matter. The important thing is that the first step is to get rid of the application that your printer created during installation. This process is the basis of all work. Without it, the driver will not be completely removed.
How to get rid of specialized content? Go to the “Control Panel”, select there Now you should see the name of your equipment. In the list that appears, find the name of the printer, and then highlight these lines. There may be several of them. Practice shows that there are usually about 2-3 of them. How to remove printer drivers? Simply right-click on each line associated with your printing equipment, and then select the "Delete" option. All this will help you cope with the task.
Programs
By the way, sometimes during driver installation the computer also installs software for processing documents. And this kind of content also needs to be gotten rid of. It is often not displayed in What should I do in this case?
Go to "Start" and select "All Programs" there. In the list that appears, you should look for printing applications (usually they have the brand of your printer in the name). Go to properties and follow the specified installation path. Ready?
Then, to figure out once and for all how to remove the printer driver from the system, select the root folder with the “editor”. Hold Shift on your keyboard and press Del. You will see a message informing you that the process is irreversible. The folder from the program will not be placed in the Trash, it will simply disappear with hard drive. This is exactly what we need! We agree with the warning and look at the result. But that's not all. It’s not enough to get rid of all the content that was installed on your computer. You need to follow a few more simple steps so that you can understand how to remove printer drivers once and for all.
Device
Next, you will have to worry about ridding the operating system of the printing equipment connected to it. That is, you need to take and remove the printer directly from the computer. This is especially true in cases where the driver will not be reinstalled on the printing device.
To uninstall the printer driver in Windows 7, look at the Control Panel. But now it’s worth paying attention to a service called “Equipment”. In it, find “View devices and printers.” Click on this line. You will be taken to a window in which all equipment for printing documents will be displayed.
You will have to find the model of our device in the list. Select the corresponding shortcut and click on the right mouse button. You will see the “Remove device” option. Click on it. Most likely, the system will ask for administrator rights. Agree with this message and confirm your actions. To do this, click “Yes” as soon as a small window pops up asking you if you really want to get rid of the installed printer.
Important: You must first remove content and programs related to the device, and only then clear the equipment list. If you do the opposite, the driver will not disappear completely. Reinstalling will change the application rather than reconnecting the devices.
Working with the print server
Well, we are almost done with you considering the question of how to completely remove the printer driver from the operating system. Now that the bulk of the work is done, it’s worth looking into a service such as a print server. Not all users do this when they get rid of a printer on their computer. This step is not mandatory, but it is advisable to do it.
Press the Win + X key combination on your keyboard. A long list with possible actions. Here you will have to pay attention to “Run”. You can also immediately press Win + R on your keyboard. You will be taken to the desired service.
How to remove a printer driver from the system once and for all? In the line that appears, you will have to type some command. In our case it is printui /s. Click "OK" or Enter. We will find ourselves in the print server properties. Next you will have to go to the "Drivers" tab. You will see a small list that have ever been connected to operating system. To rid your computer of the driver, you need to find the printer that we worked with before. Now select the desired line and click on the "Delete" button at the bottom of the window.
You will have a small choice of actions: either you get rid of only the driver, or you get rid of it but with a special package. Select the second option. It's called "Remove Driver and Driver Package". And then, as in all previous cases, you will simply have to agree with all the changes. Click on "Ok" several times. The process is complete.
Cleaning up trash
In principle, all actions are completed. The printer drivers have been removed. But sometimes there are cases when some documents and files from the device remain in the operating system. It is advisable to get rid of them. Especially if the reason for removing the printer was a printing problem.
How to do it? Look on your computer for folders with the name of your printer, and then delete them. Most often they are located in the Program Files partitions of the hard drive. You should get rid of everything you find in the same way as in the case of applications - by holding Shift or emptying the trash at the end of all manipulations. This is what helps to permanently remove printer drivers from the operating system.
Registry
The next step is also optional. But it is advisable to do it. After all, it not only helps to get rid of residual printer files, but also normalizes the operation of the operating system. We need to clean up the computer's registry. For this, it is preferable to use CCleaner.
Install the application and launch it. Now in the window that appears, click on “Analysis”, and then click on “Cleaning”. A few minutes of waiting - and all problems are solved. You can be sure that we are able to answer how to remove printer drivers from your computer.
Possible problems
But there are some exceptions. Sometimes, due to unforeseen circumstances, you cannot remove the printer driver. What to do in this case? There are several options for the development of events.
First, make sure that there is no queue of documents to print on your computer. If you have them, you will have to either print the files or discard them altogether.
Secondly, scan your operating system for viruses. Sometimes Trojans and spyware are able to block driver removal.
Third, run all services with administrator rights. This helps in many cases. If none of the above helped, then you can either forget about the idea or reinstall the operating system. However, the latter option is used in exceptional cases.
All peripheral equipment can fail. And when this happens, every user wants to know the cause of the problems and methods to solve them. In particular, when problems arise when printing, the user can first try a different version of printer software (Epson, HP, Canon or another model). To do this, you must first remove the previously installed printer driver. However, since not every person who comes across office equipment knows about such nuances, in this article we will help you figure out how to remove a printer driver.
The procedure for removing printer drivers differs from similar procedures where you need to remove another driver. Therefore, before you begin to implement your plan, it is recommended to study the algorithm of operations with the operating system in more detail.
Driver removal algorithm for different OS versions
The need to remove the printer driver occurs when various reasons. In most cases, this is a deterioration in print quality. In such situations, when the print quality is unsatisfactory, users often ask, “Can I improve the quality of printed products by installing new drivers?” However, users can also remove printer drivers if:
- a different driver was previously selected by mistake;
- desire to test a different version of a more suitable driver;
- printer printing failure;
- need to replace the driver.
Driver removal can be done either manually, following the algorithm specified in each version, or using special program utilities. The procedure for changing drivers itself depends on the version of the OS installed on the user’s computer. On this moment software Windows software is the priority and most common. Versions XP, 7 and 8 of Windows can be called the most popular, although the Windows 10 update provides more options for working with the printer. Therefore, for these types of OS, the procedure algorithm for how to remove a printer driver will be given below.
General scheme for removing drivers manually
This scheme is suitable for the removal procedure in Windows XP, 7, 8, but is not suitable for Windows 10, where print drivers for different models of printing devices are built into the OS (except for some HP devices).
To remove a previously installed driver in Windows XP, 7 or 8, go to the “Devices and Printers” section through the control panel. Next, having found the device you need in the list of devices, use the right mouse button and the “Delete device” footnote to delete it. To transfer complete information about driver settings to the printer, you need to use the key combination “Win” + “R” and enter the command for the OS “Services.msc” in the window that appears. In this section, among the various services, the user should find “Print Manager” and restart it by selecting the footnote in the window that appears after clicking the right mouse button. Then open the command window again by pressing “Win” + “R” and enter “printui /s /t2” in it, then click “OK”. This stage is removing drivers on the server. In the window that appears, find the “Drivers” section and, having selected all the necessary footnotes, click the “Delete” button.
At the same time, be prepared that the OS will ask you again about removing drivers with packages. In this case, in order to be able to remove them completely (and on the server), the user needs to choose this method. Finally, after removing the drivers with packages, by opening a command window (“Win” + “R”), run the “printmanagement.msc” command and in the list that appears, from the “All drivers” section, delete the ones you need. Now the system has no data about past installations.
To continue working with the printer (if it is connected to a PC), just restart the computer, after which Windows XP, 7, 8 will prompt you to install the drivers again through search and download necessary programs. At the same time, when installing drivers in Windows 10, the drivers for some printer models are already built into the software (for example, HP). That is, if the Windows 10 OS memory contains the name of your device model, it is enough to install the built-in settings from it without searching or downloading.
If you delete it earlier installed driver fails, you need to look through the registry to see if there are keys with the name of the printer. Having eliminated the remains, after restarting the PC, the OS will offer to install new programs for managing the remote printing device.
When faced with printer disposal, users often encounter the problem of deletion when the printer is “busy.” In this case, you also need to check the removal of all program components.
Drivers can also be removed using the utility
When starting such a program, it is enough to select the “to be demolished” driver in the list of all installation programs that appears and that’s it. Such programs make working with the OS much easier. In this case, there is no need to perform the procedure in several stages; the utility will completely erase data about the specified driver from the system (including on the server).
It is worth noting that when updating Windows OS to version 10, devices may work the same. However, in this system you can gain access to manage (remove and install) devices. In addition, this version Windows updates 10 allows you to install drivers from memory, where installation programs and settings for different models devices. If you cannot find full-featured programs (as with some HP models), you can extract the built-in ones with Windows 10.
Below is an educational video:
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How to properly remove a printer driver?
- Additional cleaning
The need to remove the printer driver arises when you need to install a new software package, or when another printer is connected to the PC (the old device is replaced by a new one). In appearance it seems easy task. However, many users fail to remove the driver from the system: it is either not removed at all, or is not completely removed.
This article will tell you how to correctly remove a printer driver from your computer so that not a single element of it remains in the directories and options.
Uninstallation via control panel
1. Open the Start panel (click on Windows icon on the taskbar).
2. Select “Control Panel” from the list of options.
3. In the “Settings settings…” menu, go to the “Programs and Features” section (or to “Uninstall a program” if the “Category” display mode is enabled).
4. Listed installed applications find your printer software.
Advice! Software support can be quickly found in the list if you enter the name of the printer in the “Search” line.
5. Select it with a mouse click and click the “Delete” command in the panel. Follow the uninstaller prompts.
Additional cleaning
This method uninstallation should be used if the driver is not removed using method No. 1 (described above) or if it is not in the list of installed software (that is, installed manually).
To find out which driver package is available in Windows: 1. Hold down the Win key and press the Pause/Break key (located above the volume control buttons).
2. In the left column, click “Device Manager”.
3. Find the “Printers” section in the list.
To remove these drivers, follow these steps: 1. Open: “Start” → “Devices and Printers”.
2. Right-click on the device icon. IN context menu select "Remove device".
3. In the additional window, confirm the start of the removal: click “Yes”. Close the Devices and Printers window.
4. Open the “Services” section: press “Win + R” → in the “Open” line type → services.msc → click “OK”.
Note. You can open the list of services in another way: Start → Control Panel → in the “View” option, set “Large icons” → Administrative Tools → Services.
5. Right-click on the line “Print Manager”, and then select the “Restart” command and close the list of services.
6. Press “Win+R” again. In the window line, type - printui /s /t2. Click "OK".
7. In the Print Server Properties window, go to the Drivers tab. Click on the printer applications in the list and click the “Delete” button.
8. In the cleanup setting, enable the radio button “Remove driver and driver package” to completely get rid of all application elements. Click "OK". Confirm the selected action.
9. Open the Run panel again and run the command in it - printmanagement.msc.
10. In the “Print Management” window, look at the “Print Server → Drivers”, “All Printers”, “All Drivers” sections. If there is software support for the printer in these directories, remove it.
As a preventive measure: after you have completed uninstalling the printer software, clean the registry and disk directories using the CCleaner utility.
If you found the article useful, don’t forget to like it!
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How to completely remove video card, printer, and other hardware drivers on Windows 7, 8, 10
This is the simplest method that does not require complex actions and can be done by anyone. Windows has a built-in removal tool various programs, including drivers. First of all, open the Control Panel, and there “Add or Remove Programs”. It’s worth warning right away that not everything can be found this way. Some don't show up there. 
A list will appear. It will contain programs that are installed on this computer and drivers. You can use sorting to make it easier to search. When the required component is found, right-click on it and select “Delete/Change”. Everything will happen next automatic mode and it will be uninstalled. 
Manual removal
This method is used if, using the previous option, the required component is not in the list, or it cannot be removed.
Open the control panel and find Device Manager there. Now select the subsection to which the driver belongs. Having selected the one you need, right-click and click “Delete”. 
Then another window will open in which you need to check the box. 
After which it will be completely removed. This is the most effective and efficient method. It allows you to get rid of any driver, since it displays the computer devices and the drivers installed for them.
Removal using third-party software
What should you do if a bunch of drivers are installed on the system, but not all of them are needed? How do you know which ones can be deleted and which ones can’t? After all, not every user can cope with this task.
Using Driver Sweeper
There is an exit. The Driver Sweeper utility is perfect for this purpose. She will find everything and help you get rid of unnecessary components. Let's learn how to use it - this will help clean the system of drivers for devices that are not in the system. After all, it happens that we install something by mistake.
What is the taskbar and how to configure it All is ready. By the way, to find and install only the necessary components, install DriverPack Solution. This program will find everything itself and install it in 10-15 minutes. This way, you won’t make a mistake and won’t have to clean your computer of unnecessary drivers later.
Cleaning using Driver Store Explorer
Another good software that has good functionality. You just need to download the program and run it. Next, it will find all the drivers in the system and show which ones are unused. It is somewhat similar to the previous one, but has more advanced functionality and is much more convenient.
The program is easy to use because it groups the information received by equipment type. It will be possible to easily determine which component a specific driver belongs to, when it was installed, and so on. 
Managing drivers is very convenient; you just need to right-click the driver you need and start the action: delete, select, export, etc.
The utility allows you to see all the drivers in the system, determine which ones are not used, and eliminate them. Before deleting, it is recommended to do backup copy. Suddenly, after removal, the device or system begins to work incorrectly. Or a new version will contain serious errors. And so, if anything happens, you can roll back to previous version.
composs.ru
How to remove a printer driver in Windows 7, 8
I haven’t written new blog articles for a long time. We will improve...
Today I would like to talk about how to remove the printer driver in Windows 7 (8). By the way, you may need to remove it for various reasons: for example, you mistakenly selected the wrong driver; found a more suitable driver and want to test it; the printer refuses to print and the driver needs to be replaced, etc.
Removing a printer driver is a little different from removing other drivers, so let's go into more detail. So…
1. Uninstall the printer driver manually
Let's describe the actions step by step.
1) Go to the OS control panel in the “devices and printers” section (in Windows XP - “printers and faxes”). Next, remove your installed printer from it. On my Windows 8 OS it looks like the screenshot below.
2) Next, press the “Win + R” keys and enter the “Services.msc” command. You can also execute this command through the “Start” menu if you enter it in the “run” column (after executing it, the “services” window will open; by the way, you can also open it through the control panel).
Here we are interested in one service “Print Spooler” - just restart it.
3) Execute another command “printui /s /t2” (to run it, press “Win + R”, then copy the command, enter it in the run line and press Enter).
4) In the “print server” window that opens, delete all the drivers in the list (by the way, delete the drivers along with the packages (the OS will ask you about this when deleting)).
5) Open the “Run” window again (“Win + R”) and enter the command “printmanagement.msc“.
6) In the “print management” window that opens, we also remove all drivers.
By the way, that's all! There should be no traces in the system of previously present drivers. After restarting the computer (if the printer is still connected to it), Windows 7 (8) itself will prompt you to search for and install drivers.
2. Removing the driver using a special utility
Manually removing drivers is, of course, good. But even better, remove them using special utilities- you just need to select required driver from the list, press 1-2 buttons - and all the work (described above) will be done automatically!
It's about about such a utility as Driver Sweeper.
It is very easy to remove drivers for it. I'll describe it step by step.
1) Launch the utility, then immediately select the desired language - Russian.
2) Next, go to the section for cleaning the system from unnecessary drivers and click the analyze button. Utility for a short time will collect all the information from the system about the presence of not only drivers in it, but also drivers installed with errors (+ all sorts of “tails”).
3) Then all you have to do is select unnecessary drivers in the list and click the clean button. For example, this is how I easily and simply got rid of the Realtek “sound” drivers I didn’t need on sound card. By the way, you can similarly remove printer drivers...
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How to remove a driver from Windows 10
Hello visitors to the site mixprise.ru, in this article we will look at the topic of removing drivers from windows systems 10.
What is it actually needed for? this procedure? Let's say that when you update drivers in the Windows 10 operating system, it is possible that after updating the hardware configuration, so-called residual files will remain in the system, which subsequently clog up your system and take up disk space.
Another important factor is that if you install incorrect drivers in your operating system, various glitches may occur, which will subsequently affect the performance of programs and games, in other words, your computer will slow down!
To prevent this from happening, before installing a new driver, you must remove old driver from a Windows 10 system, how to do this will be shown below:
Interesting: you can learn how to install a full set of drivers on Windows 10 from this article
Removing old drivers in Windows 10
Before you begin removing the old driver, you will need to clean the disk from temporary files and garbage; how to do this is shown in the article: How to remove temporary files Windows files 10
After completing this procedure, right-click on the “My Computer” icon and go to “Properties”
In the window that opens, select “Device Manager”
In the dispatcher Windows devices 10 select the driver that you want to get rid of later and right-click on it and select “Delete”
(as an example I'll remove sound driver Realtek)
Next, check the box next to the inscription: Remove driver programs for this device - this must be done so that the programs that were installed along with this driver are also cleared, then confirm the removal with the “Ok” button.
You will have to wait a little while the system removes the specified driver
Removing the driver from the Windows 10 system has been successfully completed, to check again, open the “Device Manager” and as we can see, the driver was successfully removed
Other drivers on Windows 10 are removed in a similar way.
That's all for me, if you still have questions regarding the topic: How to remove a driver from a Windows 10 system, write in the comments and do not forget to subscribe to the newsletter. Thanks everyone and good luck!
If you work in an office, you may have several printers added to your computer that are network printers, meaning they are not directly connected to your computer. However, when you move a company or printers die out, this list needs to be cleared from time to time.
Sometimes when you try to remove a network printer, you may receive a message from Windows saying "Unable to remove network printer", and that's it! Great, now you have useless printers cluttering up your printer list. Luckily, there is a way to remove any network printer from your computer through the registry. Please note that you need to be a system administrator to do this.
If you'd rather not mess with the registry, there are other options Possible Solution, which I will list below, which may also solve the problem, so be sure to scroll down.
Remove network printers from Windows using Registry Editor
Step 1: Click Start, Run, then type regedit and press Enter. This will open the Registry Editor.
Step 2: Go to the following registry key:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER – Printers – Connections
Here you should see a list of all network printers, with the server name at the beginning, separated by commas with the name of the actual printer.
Click on the printer in the left menu and click the Remove button, or right-click and select Remove. Unfortunately, that's not all! You must also remove the printer from one more location in the registry:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE – SYSTEM – CurrentControlSet – Control – Print – Providers – LanMan Print Services – Servers – Printers
Now under the Servers key you will be able to expand it and see the name of the print server that actually hosts the printer you want to remove. Go ahead and expand the print server key and remove the printer from the list.
Now close the Registry Editor and restart your computer. The remote network printer should now disappear! Please note that the above method is only for network printers. If you have a local printer and want to remove it in the same way through the registry, you need to go to the following registry keys below:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Print\Environments\Windows NT x86\Drivers\Version-3\ HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Print\Printers\
Clear print queue
Another known issue is that you will not be able to remove the printer if there is a print job in the print queue. You can determine if a print job is stuck by going to the C:\Windows\System32\spool\PRINTERS\ folder and making sure it is empty.
If not, then you can read the previous article about in Windows. Once you clear the printer queue, you can remove the printer from your system.
Hello blog readers. Sometimes the actions we perform on a computer or laptop do not give the expected result. In this article, we will discuss how to uninstall a printer driver in Windows XP.
The other day, a friend of mine called me asking for help with a problem that had arisen on his computer. The situation is as follows: when you open MS Office and want to print the document that opens, then when you click on “Print” or “CTRL” + “P” the office freezes. I tried to reinstall MS Office, reinstalled the drivers, but these actions did not produce any results. But I noticed that when I select another default printer, when I click on “print” the office does not freeze, as soon as I select the desired printer, everything “hangs” again. I also tried sending text to this printer from a regular notepad, and it printed without any problems. After that, I began to understand drivers, and I decided to talk about how drivers are removed in Windows XP in this article.
There are many ways to do this. In this article we will consider only the effective, most popular and convenient methods. By the way, you may find this information regarding printers useful:
So, we've finished with a little introduction, now we can begin.
First way. Uninstall the driver from the printer as you would uninstall a regular program. Go to the “Start” menu, then “Control Panel”, then “Add or Remove Programs”. You will see a list of all installed software on your computer. Here we need to find the model of our printer, click on it and click on the “Delete” button at the top of the window. Next, we follow the intuitive instructions of the removal wizard, which no longer makes sense to describe here.
The second method is the easiest in terms of PC use skills. If you have the installation CD that comes with the purchase of any electronic device, including printers, just insert it into the drive. Then you need to start the installation. Since the files are already stored on your hard drive, the system may offer several options, which include: “Recovery” and “Delete”.
The list of available functions may be wider, but in any case we are only interested in the last item, that is, “Delete”. Select it and wait for our computer to automatically clean local disk from unnecessary printer drivers in Windows XP. After removal, you may be asked to restart your computer, so we will reboot. If you removed drivers to install new ones, you can do it now.
There is a third way to remove the printer driver in Windows XP. It is suitable for those who do not have either a CD or an inscription with the name of the printer model in the “Add or Remove Programs” menu (this sometimes happens). In this situation, we need to go to the “Start” menu, and then select “Printers and Faxes”.
A window will open in front of you. Click on the “File” button, and then click on the item: “Server Properties”.
Left-click on the “Drivers” tab and select the printer model we need. Next, click on the “Delete” button.
We confirm that you really want to remove this driver.
If the list does not contain a driver (printer model) known to you that you need to remove, then remove everything. This method helped me solve a problem that a friend of mine had. After removal, the system itself detected the printer and installed it. His joy knew no bounds, and for a whole week he wondered what to do. I even thought about reinstalling Windows. It turned out to be a very simple problem - an incorrectly installed driver.
That's all.
