Uninstalling the old printer driver. Saying goodbye to the printer driver in Windows XP Removing printer drivers from Windows 7

Sometimes a situation arises that when deleting a printer from the system, we receive many errors, or it is not removed at all or not completely removed, or, on the contrary, a new driver does not want to be installed or installed, but instead of working printing we receive an error like “The driver is not fully installed, and some functions stamps will be unavailable” as was the case for me. However, there is no need to panic in this situation; there is always the opportunity to format the computer’s hard drive, install the 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 by trying to remove the printer in the 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, in the 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 currently used in the operating system.

Make sure you are logged into your computer under an administrator account. 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 the current user is allowed all actions with the printer. 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 the system unit and restart the computer. after reboot, perform all the steps written in the article starting with executing the command printui /s /t2.

If this does not 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.

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). It seems like a simple 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 the 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. In the list of 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 uninstallation method 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. While holding down the Win key, 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. Select "Remove device" from the context menu.

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.

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 system registry window, 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.

Printer once and for all. This question, to be honest, is not as difficult 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 program folder will not be placed in the Recycle Bin, it will simply disappear from the 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 finished 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 will appear on the screen. 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 the 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.

Sometimes it happens that a person has not used a particular printing device for a long time, but it is still in the list of equipment in the OS interface. The driver for this printer is still on the PC, which sometimes additionally loads the operating system. That is, you need to uninstall the driver.

When to remove a printer from the registry

Why is it necessary to uninstall the driver: for starters, when certain failures occur during its operation or it is impossible to install new drivers if you do not uninstall the old ones.

Naturally, other reasons are also likely - for example, the printer simply broke down and there is no way to use it, so a new MFP was purchased.

Methods for removing a printer

You can completely uninstall the printer driver from a computer running Windows 7 using special applications or using only operating system tools.

Reference! The first method is the simplest, but the latter is much more reliable. In addition, in this case there is no need to additionally install various programs.

Removing a printer in Windows 7 completely: step by step

Main stages:

1. To uninstall the printer from Windows and remove all its additional files, you first need to enter the “Control Panel” menu, which contains a list of connected equipment.
2. Find the required device among the entire list of specified devices. Open the menu by right-clicking on the shortcut.
3. In the list that appears, find and click on the item that launches the uninstallation program for this equipment. This removes the printer driver.
4. Go to the “Run” command line again, specify “Services.msc” to go to the “Services” section. You can get to the section in the “Control Panel” using administration. Here you need to select “Print Management” and right-click on the icon. In the list that appears, select the file that is responsible for restarting this service.
5. The performed manipulations will restart the above-mentioned service. This procedure is required to correctly uninstall the driver.
6. Then you need to contact the print server. Open Run again and enter “printui/s/t2” in the command line. A menu with print server options will then appear.
7. Go to the tab in which all the drivers are located, then look for the option related to specific equipment and, after checking it, click “Delete”.

These were the main stages. But this is not the final process, since these actions will not delete all files of the printing device on the PC. Therefore you need to do the following:

1. Go to “Print Management”.
2. In the new menu you need to find “Filter settings”, then click “Drivers”.
3. After the above steps, the drivers will be visible on the left side.
4. Find the equipment and, having gone into its parameters, click the uninstall button.

Application uninstall panel

Then you need to uninstall the software specific to your specific printing equipment. Why you need to use Windows 7 tools using the application uninstall panel.

Find everything that relates to the printer from the list of available software and uninstall it. Moreover, this method is suitable for any version of Windows. Only in Windows 10 the names of the items for printers are different.

Cleaning Program Files

But before you reinstall the equipment or connect a new printing device to your computer, you need to clean out the “garbage”. To do this, go to “Program Files” and uninstall here all files related in a certain way to the printer.

Registry cleaning is also required. To do this, you will need to write “regedit” in the “Run” menu. In the new menu you need to select “Edit” and then click on the “Find” section in the list. Enter the name of the printing equipment in the search engine of this menu and click “Next”. Everything touching the printing device will light up. In this case, you only need to delete these files until the program displays information that there is nothing on request.

Attention! Then you just need to restart the PC and, if necessary, install a new driver or perform other manipulations that the old software did not allow.

The driver cannot be uninstalled

Sometimes it happens that the printing device cannot be uninstalled. You need to find the registry by going into it “regedit” and typing “Run”.

Then go to “HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Print\Environments\”, look for “PrintProcessors”. The files must be named differently, for example, instead of copy write copy_hold. Then go to the print manager, remove the desired device from there, and disable the service. Afterwards, rename the files and turn on this manager again. Using these steps, you will probably be able to resolve the issue of uninstalling the printing device driver.

If the above option did not help, you can do the following:

1. Go to "Printers". Find the required equipment here, then uninstall.
2. Enter “Control Panel”, after “Services”. Find “Manage Printers” and disable this feature.
3. Go to the registry, go to “HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Print\Environments\Drivers\”.
4. Find the program to uninstall from your computer, now you need to name it differently.
5. Re-open the print manager and uninstall the device from it, as indicated at the beginning of the article.

The main reason for equipment malfunction is software that was installed from unverified sources. Therefore, to uninstall it you need to follow the recommendations described above. This can solve the problem with the printer.