How to remove a Printer from Windows 10 via PowerShell, Windows registry and Print Management

A Printer is a peripheral machine that makes a persistent representation of graphics and text on paper. In this article, I will be discussing how to remove a Printer from your device. If after installing a Printer driver and you wish to have it removed because of other related issues such as not being able to add a new driver, the Printer is faulty or being retired etc., kindly follow the steps discussed below.

Here are some articles relating to Print Drivers I have written; how to delete obsolete drivers from the Driver Store in Windows 10, how to rename a Printer in Windows 10, how to determine the version and type of a Printer Driver (Printer Driver Information), how to specify a persistent default printer via the Windows Registry and how to add Print Drivers with PowerShell, RUNDLL32, and VBScript in Windows 10.

1 – How to Remove a Printer Using PowerShell?

To remove a printer, you need to run the following PowerShell cmdlet.

Remove-Printer -Name "hP4FBE12"

Note: If you wish to remove a specific driver as well, run the “Remove-PrinterDriver” cmdlet as shown below.

Remove-PrinterDriver -Name "HP Universal Printing PCL 6"

2 – Using the Print Management Console: Print Management is a Microsoft Management Console (MMC) snap-in that enables you to install, view, and manage all of the printers in your organization.

To remove a Printer, press Windows Key + R in order to open the “run” dialog window.
– Ensure you are a local administrator on the device or a Domain administrator.
– In the “run window” type “printmanagement.msc” and press enter.

This will open up the Print Management Console.
– Expand the Custom filter as shown below,
– Click on “All Printers” and
– Right Click on the Printer you wish to delete and click on delete to remove the printer from your device.

3 – Windows Settings:

Also referred to as “PC settings” in the previous edition of Windows such as Windows 8 etc is a component of Microsoft Windows that allows the user to customize and configure the operating system. Microsoft intends to eventually replace the existing Control Panel.

To launch the Windows Settings, kindly follow the steps below.
– You can search from the Windows Search Menu, Win-X, or from the Start Menu. I will be using the Win-X as shown below
– Right-click on your Windows Start Menu and select “Settings” as shown below.

This will launch the Windows Settings
– Navigate to “Devices”

This will open up the Devices and other devices window
– Click on the “Printers & Scanners” window as shown below

– In the list of Printers and Scanners, click on the Printer you wish to remove.

Most times, even if after you remove or delete a printer using the above methods, the Add a printer page may still show up your old printers. You need to edit the registry to remove the remnant entries., To mitigate against this, we will edit the registry to remove the remnant entries.

Launch the Registry Editor and locate the follow key below. Here are some articles relating to Windows Registry; What is Registry Editor and how to access the registry hives, and how to search through the Windows registry. For a comprehensive list of articles relating to the Windows registry, visit the following link.

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Classes\Local Settings\Printers\Roamed

In the right-pane, right-click the printer you want to remove and choose Delete.
– Do this for every other printer you want to remove.
– Also, check the printer entries under the following key and delete the unwanted items

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Printers\Connections

4 – Windows registry:

We can mitigate or remove any driver that is currently causing an issue or no longer needed from our device via the registry. To launch the Windows Registry Editor, please follow the steps below.

Press Windows Key + R. Type “Regedit” and press enter.
– Alternatively, you can search for regedit.exe from the Windows Search Menu as shown below.

Ensure you have Administration rights in order to perform this operation.
– This will open the Windows Registry editor. In the left pane, navigate to the following location by double-clicking on the hives as shown below.

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\ControlSet001\Control\Print\Printers<YOURPRINTERNAME>

– Expand the key and select the printer listed under the key.
– Right-click on the Printer and choose Delete as shown below

I hope you found this blog post helpful. If you have any questions, please let me know in the comment session.