Often, when removing a printer from the system, a number of problems may arise when errors appear or incomplete removal occurs. Also, when installing a new device and drivers, various errors appear in the form of unavailable printing functions and the like.
To avoid these problems it is necessary to correctly and completely remove previous printer. How to do this will be described in detail in this article.
How to remove a printer yourself
- The first step is to open the Control Panel window. This can be done using the menu "Start". Or press “Win + R” - enter in the window control panel and click "OK".
- Next, go to the subsection "Devices and Printers".
- In the window that appears, select the desired printer and click on it with the right mouse button. Select the line from the menu "Remove device."
- If the deletion is accompanied by an error, then move on to the next point. In the case when the removal goes smoothly, it is still worth following the following points.
- In the Control Panel window, go to the “System and Security” subsection, and there, select the item "Administration".
- Click on the label "Services" and in the window that appears, we are looking for "Print Manager".
- Select the line with the mouse, and in the left panel click on the link "Restart".
- Next, you need to launch the “Run” window. To do this, press the Win + R buttons.
- In the window, enter the directive printui /s /t2 and click “OK”.
- In the print server properties window, you must select the printer to be deleted and click on the “Delete” button.
- After this action, a small window will appear where you will need to check the second entry, which suggests removing the driver itself and its package.
- After checking the box, click "OK".
Now you need to clear the registry of “junk”.
The registry should be cleaned very carefully; if you are not absolutely sure that manual cleaning will go smoothly, then it is better to use specialized programs. There are quite a lot of them and they are downloaded completely free of charge.
- In the window " Execute"We register the regedit directive. Click "OK".
- In the window system registry click on the menu “ Edit" Select the line " Find next».
- In the search window, enter the name of the printer or driver and perform a search.
- Everything that is found is deleted.
- We conduct the search several times until a message appears stating that no suitable files were found.
- After this procedure, reboot the device.
Now, if necessary, you can reinstall the printer and drivers; there should be no errors.
If you use a laptop, then you are probably a mobile user and have connected many printers to it, which over time can produce various errors due to driver confusion. This also applies to PC users who encounter various problems with the printer, in particular, the inability to install the driver, the ability to remove the old one, or the deleted printer continues to appear.
The fact is that if you simply delete the printer via Windows settings 10, Windows 8 or panel Windows management 7, then it will be removed, but the driver itself will remain and can create problems. In another situation, when you have removed the driver and printer, and it appears again, then in most cases this is due to the print queue. Let's say you sent a couple of documents for printing and deleted the printer, but the system retained information about unfinished printing and it will appear again. You just need to remove everything from the print queue. Let's look at ways to correctly remove the HP, Canon, Epson printer driver in Windows 10/7/8.1.
How to completely remove a printer driver
Before we begin. Disconnect the printer from your PC and restart your computer.
Step 1. The first thing you should do is uninstall all applications associated with the printer, be it HP, Canon or Epson. To do this, open " Control Panel" > "Uninstalling programs"> find in the list programs that may be related to printers. They are usually named after HP, Canon, Epson models.
If you use Windows system 10, then there may be UWP applications for the printer that will not appear in “uninstall programs”, as I have in the picture below. In this case, open " All parameters" > "Applications" > "applications and features" > Locate the list of programs that may be associated with your printer and remove them.
Step 2. Open " Control Panel" > "Equipment and sound" > "Devices and Printers"> select the desired printer, click on it right click mouse and " Remove device". Restart your PC and the printer driver will be removed.
Step 3. If somehow Step 2 does not work for you, then we will turn to the device manager. Click Win+R and enter devmgmt.msc to open it. Next, find and expand the column associated with the printer; in Windows 10 this is “Print Queues”. Right-click on the desired printer and " Remove devices". Don't forget to check the box in a new window." Remove driver programs for this device", if asked.
An unused, old printer driver may interfere with the new one. Click on the "View" tab and check the " Show hidden devices". They will appear in a transparent color, delete them all. Restart your PC.
Step 4. If nothing above helps you, then this radical method should help. Press a combination of buttons Win+R enter printui /s /t2 and press Enter. In the "tab" Drivers"find the printer you want to remove along with the driver and select" Delete". In the new window, check "Remove driver and driver package". Restart your PC.
Step 5. Sometimes values in the registry, after removing printer drivers, may remain and generate errors. Click Win+R and enter regedit to open Registry Editor. In the registry, go to the following path:
- HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Print\Printer
- Restart your PC.
There are cases when a user has not used a certain printer for a long time, but it is still displayed in the list of devices in the operating system interface. The driver for such a device is still installed on the computer, which can sometimes create additional load on the OS. In addition, in some cases, when the equipment does not work correctly, it needs to be completely removed and reinstalled. Let's figure out how to completely uninstall a printer on a PC running Windows 7.
The process of uninstalling a printer from a computer is carried out by clearing the system of its drivers and associated software. This can be done using third party programs, and internal means of Windows 7.
Method 1: Third Party Programs
Let's look at the procedure first complete removal printer using third-party programs. The algorithm will be described using an example popular application to clean the system from Driver Sweeper drivers.
- Launch Driver Sweeper and in the list of devices that appears in the program window, check the box next to the name of the printer that will need to be removed. Then click the button "Analysis".
- This will open a list of drivers, software, and registry entries that apply to the selected printer. Check all of them and click the button "Cleaning".
- All traces of the device will be removed from the computer.
- Click "Start" and go to "Control Panel".
- Open section "Equipment and Sound".
- Select position "Devices and Printers".
The required system tool can be launched and more in a fast way, but requiring memorization of the command. Click on your keyboard Win+R and enter in the window that appears:
control printers
After that click "OK".
- In the window that appears with a list of installed devices, find the target printer, right-click on its name ( RMB) and select from the list that appears "Remove device".
- A dialog box will open where you must confirm the removal of the equipment by clicking the button "Yes".
- After the equipment is removed, you need to restart the service responsible for the operation of printers. Go to again "Control Panel", but this time open the section "System and safety".
- Then go to the section "Administration".
- Select a name from the list of tools "Services".
- Find the name in the list that appears "Print Manager". Select this element and click "Restart" in the left area of the window.
- The service will be restarted, after which the printing equipment drivers should be removed correctly.
- Now you need to open the print properties. Dial Win+R and enter the expression:
Click "OK".
- A list of printers installed on your PC will open. If you find in it the name of the device that you want to remove, then select it and click "Delete…".
- In the dialog box that appears, move the radio button to the position "Remove driver..." and press "OK".
- Call the window "Run" by dialing Win+R and enter the expression:
printmanagement.msc
Click on the button "OK".
- In the shell that opens, go to the section "Custom Filters".
- Next, select a folder "All drivers".
- In the list of drivers that opens, look for the name the desired printer. If you find it, click on its name RMB and in the menu that appears, select "Delete".
- Then confirm in the dialog box that you want to uninstall the driver by clicking "Yes".
- Once the driver has been removed using this tool, the printing hardware and all traces of it have been removed.
Method 2: Internal system tools
As mentioned above, you can also completely uninstall the printer using exclusively the functionality of Windows 7. Let's see how to do this.
Completely uninstall the printer from a PC running on the operating room Windows system 7, you can use special programs or using OS tools exclusively. The first option is easier, but the second is more reliable. In addition, in this case you will not need to install additional software.
Sometimes a situation arises that when deleting a printer from the system, we receive many errors or it is not deleted at all or not completely deleted, or vice versa it does not want to new driver installed or installed, but instead of working printing we get an error like “The driver is not fully installed, and some printing functions will not be available,” as I had. However, there is no need to panic in this situation; there is always the opportunity to format HDD computer, install operating system and all related software. But today I will tell you how you can do this easier without resorting to such harsh actions.
Let's get started. Let's start with the fact that we are trying to remove the printer in a standard way. Let's go to Start\Control Panel\Hardware and Sound\Devices and Printers click on the problem printer right click and select from the menu that opens Remove device.
Next, regardless of the result in the previous step, we go to Services, namely Start\Control Panel\System and Security\Administrative Tools and launches a shortcut called Services. In the window that opens, look for the service Print Manager, highlight it and in the side column click on the restart link.
Now let's finish with the printer driver, for this we go and click on the line Execute. A window opens in which you need to enter printui /s /t2 and press the button OK.
A window will open in which we highlight the printer that is not working correctly and has already been partially removed and press the button Delete.
Another window will open in which you need to select Remove driver and driver package and press the button OK.
In general, that’s all, the printer and printer driver are permanently removed from the system. All that remains is to go into the folder Program Files and delete all folders, if any, that belong to the remote printer. (I just don’t have those) Those who are particularly meticulous can still clear the registry of entries related to this printer; to do this, run the program regedit. Let's go Start\All Programs\Accessories already known to us Execute. Enter in the field regedit and press the button OK.
In the program that opens top menu click on Edit and in the list that opens select Find… Next, enter the name of the printer in the search field and click on the button Find next.
And if something related to the printer was found, we highlight it and delete it. And we repeat the search again until we see a message that nothing suitable was found.
Now only a little remains, to restart a computer and if you need to reinstall a working driver or carry out any other manipulations, which the old, corrupted and already completely removed driver will not interfere with.
The "Access Denied Unable to Remove Device" error can be caused by two reasons. The first occurs if you do not perform the actions described in the article with administrator rights, and the second if the printer driver is in this moment involved in the operating system.
Make sure you are logged into your computer account administrator. Then check if there are any documents sent for printing in the printer’s print queue. Next, go to “Printer Properties” in the “Security” tab and check that to the current user All actions with the printer are allowed. If everything is in order and the queue is empty and your user is allowed everything, then restart the “print manager” as described in the article and then remove the printer from the device manager: Start -> RMB click on “Computer” -> “Properties” -> In the left pane, select “Device Manager” -> in the window that opens, find either the name of your printer, or if the printer is connected via USB, in the “USB Controllers” tab, find “Support” usb printer» -> Right-click and select “Delete”. Then disconnect the printer from system unit, and restart your computer. after reboot, perform all the steps written in the article starting with executing the command printui /s /t2.
If this doesn't help, try deleting the printer in " Safe Mode": When you turn on your computer, press F8 and select "Safe Mode".
If the same garbage happens in “Safe Mode”, then we’ll make a knight’s move. Instead of restarting the print manager, we stop it. Next, as described at the end of the article, we remove all mention of the printer from the registry. Then we delete all printer files from the folder in the Progam Files directory. After this, we launch the print manager and if the printer is still in the devices, then delete it. Reboot the computer.
Removing a Windows 7 printer is associated with certain difficulties and in a simple way It will not work to remove the wrong driver. Let's do this operation together, screenshots of each of our steps are at the end of the article.
- First thing to do: Go to Control Panel->Devices and Printers and delete our printer until we reboot.
- Second: Start->Run, type Services.msc and go to the tab Services restart Print Manager.
- Third: Start->Run, type printui /s /t2 we get into the window Print Server Properties and remove our printer driver. We can choose Remove driver and driver package.
- Fourth: Opening Print management Start->Run, type printmanagement.msc. In folder Custom filters need to choose All drivers, right-click on our driver and select from the drop-down menu Remove driver package. If an error appears, it means it has already been deleted.
Also in Print Management, in the tab Print servers, select the item Drivers And Printers remove our driver.
Basically remove Windows 7 printer driver Now we have already succeeded and after a reboot the new driver should be installed successfully, but you can still do the rest of the manipulations to be sure.
- Fifth: Look at the menu Uninstalling or changing a program Is there any mention of your printer, if yes, then click Remove, then remove all components of your printer software. Delete all files related to the printer from your computer, starting with the folder Program Files.
- Just in case, look through the registry for the presence of keys with the name of your printer.
Reboot and install a new printer driver.
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