How to specify a persistent default printer via the Windows Registry and PowerShell
You may want to specify a persistent default printer for so many reasons. One of which is to be able to use the same printer even after connecting to a different Printer. 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, and how to determine the version and type of a Printer Driver (Printer Driver Information)
Windows 10 uses by default the last chosen printer as default. If you need to specify a persistent default printer you can disable this feature with the following registry key. 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.
Note: To get the list of all installed Printers. Note, you also achieve this via the Control Panel or Windows Settings. I have already discussed the steps on how to accomplish this task here.
Set-ItemProperty -Path "HKCU:\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Windows" -Name "LegacyDefaultPrinterMode" -Value 1 -Force
From PowerShell: Run the following cmdlets to change the value from zero to one as shown below.
Set-ItemProperty -Path "HKCU:\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Windows" -Name "LegacyDefaultPrinterMode" -Value 1 -ForceI hope you found this blog post helpful. If you have any questions, please let me know in the comment session. I welcome you to follow me on Twitter and Facebook.
