Step-by-Step Guide: Uninstalling a Printer From Your Computer on Windows 11 or Windows 10

Quick Links

• Three Ways to Uninstall a Printer
• Uninstall the Printer Using the Settings App
• Uninstall a Printer Using Device Manager
• Use PowerShell to Remove a Printer
• Delete the Printer’s Installed Apps
• Clean Up the Print Spooler and Leftover Registry Keys

Key Takeaways

• To remove just printer and not its drivers, go to Settings > Bluetooth & Devices > Printers & Scanners. Click the printer to delete and choose “Remove.”
• To remove the printer along with its drivers, open Device Manager, right-click the printer, select “Uninstall Device,” enable the option to remove the printer drivers, and select “Uninstall.”
• You can also remove a printer with PowerShell using the Remove-Printer command.

If you don’t use a printer anymore and wish to remove it, or you want to uninstall and reinstall a printer to fix its problems, both Windows 11 and Windows 10 make it super easy to uninstall printers. We’ll show you how to do that using two graphical and one command line method.

Three Ways to Uninstall a Printer

There are three different ways to remove a printer from a Windows PC.

1. If you’re only looking to remove the printer’s connection from your PC and without deleting the printer’s drivers, use the Settings app method. This method ensures the selected printer doesn’t appear in any print dialog boxes.
2. If you want to completely remove a printer (and the associated drivers), use the Device Manager method. This is helpful if you’re troubleshooting issues with the printer .
3. The third method is a command line method that removes the printer’s connection from your PC, just like the Settings app does.

Uninstall the Printer Using the Settings App

If you’re on a Windows 11 PC, head into Settings > Bluetooth & Devices > Printers & Scanners. On Windows 10, navigate to Settings > Devices > Printers & Scanners.

Find and select the printer to remove. On Windows 11, choose “Remove.” On Windows 10, select “Remove Device” and click “Yes.”

Windows has removed the selected printer.

Uninstall a Printer Using Device Manager

To remove a Printer with Device Manager, first open Device Manager by right-clicking the Start Menu icon and selecting “Device Manager.”

Select “View” in the menu bar, then enable “Show Hidden Devices” to ensure your printer appears even if it’s hidden.

In the same window, expand “Printers” and find your printer. If you can’t find your printer, expand “Print Queues” and look for it there. Once you’ve located it, right-click the printer’s name and select “Uninstall Device.”

In the “Uninstall Device” window, enable the “Attempt to Remove the Driver for This Device” (Windows 11) or “Delete the Driver Software for This Device” (Windows 10) option. Then, click “Uninstall.”

Wait while Device Manager uninstalls the selected printer. Then, bring the changes into effect by restarting your Windows 11 or Windows 10 PC.

Use PowerShell to Remove a Printer

Open the Start Menu, search for PowerShell, and select “Run as Administrator .”

In the User Account Control (UAC) prompt, select “Yes.”

In PowerShell, list the available printers by typing the following command and pressing Enter:

Get-Printer

From the listed printers, note the name of the printer you want to remove. Then, type the following command, replacing “PrinterName” with the noted name, and press Enter. Make sure the printer’s name is enclosed in double quotes.

Remove-Printer -Name “PrinterName”

PowerShell has removed the specified printer. You can run Get-Printer again to confirm that it has been removed.

Delete the Printer’s Installed Apps

Most printers (if not all) install their own manufacturer apps when you add a printer to your PC. If you’ve gotten rid of your printer for good, you should remove these installed apps as well. Here’s how to do that.

On Windows 11

Open Settings using Windows+i and navigate to Apps > Installed apps.

Find your printer’s app on the list. Next to the app, click the three dots and choose “Uninstall.”

Select “Uninstall” in the prompt.

On Windows 10

Launch Settings using Windows+i and select “Apps.”

Find and select your printer app on the list. Choose “Uninstall” and select “Uninstall.”

Clean Up the Print Spooler and Leftover Registry Keys

After removing the printer, clean up any pending print jobs and leftover registry keys. This ensures all traces of your printer are gone from your PC.

Clean Up the Print Spooler

Open Run by pressing Windows+R, type the following command, and press Enter:

services.msc

Find the service named Print Spooler. Right-click it and select “Stop.” Keep the Services window open.

Open Run again (using Windows+R), type the following path, and press Enter:

C:\Windows\System32\spool\PRINTERS

Enable hidden items in File Explorer . On Windows 11, from the top bar, select View > Show and click “Hidden Items.” On Windows 10, open the “View” tab and enable “Hidden Items.” Select all files in the folder by pressing Ctrl+A, right-click a selected file, and choose the trash can icon (or “Delete” on Windows 10).

Return to the Services window we opened previously, right-click “Print Spooler” again, and select “Start.”

Remove the Deleted Printer’s Leftover Registry Keys

Be cautious of deleting things in the Windows Registry, and follow our instructions carefully. Deleting or modifying the wrong key can cause issues with your PC.

Open the Start Menu, search for Registry Editor, and launch the utility.

In the User Account Control prompt, select “Yes.”

Navigate to the following path in Registry Editor or paste it into the address bar:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Print\Printers

In the left sidebar, find the folder for your printer. It should have your printer’s name. Right-click the folder and select “Delete.”

Quit Registry Editor and restart your computer . And you’ve successfully removed a printer from your Windows machine.

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