How to completely delete a print driver in Windows

Posted on English, How To

After uninstalling or deleting a printer in Windows, its driver is not fully uninstalled.

To manually remove a printer driver:

  1. Click on the Start menu and in the search field type “print management.”
  2. On the left side of the Print Management window, select the “All Printers” folder.
  3. If present, right-click the unwanted printer and choose “Delete.”
  4. On the left side of the Print Management window, select the “All Drivers” folder.
  5. Right-click the unwanted printer and choose “Remove Driver Package.”

Note: Using the “Remove Driver Package” option will clear all driver installation files for that device, leaving no reference to the printer that Windows could possibly use to auto-reinstall again.

Failed to remove printer driver ?

  1. First remove the printer in “Devices and Printers”
  2. Stop the print spooler
  3. In registry open HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Print\Environments\Windows x64\Print Processors\
  4. Rename all Print Processors that were listed. Like Winprint to Winprint.old, Hpcpp107 to Hpcpp107.old, and so on …
  5. Start print spooler
  6. Remove the driver pack in Print Management MMC
  7. Reopen the registry location HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Print\Environments\Windows x64\Print Processors\
  8. Rename back all Print Processors back to Winprint.old to Winprint, Hpcpp107.old to Hpcpp107, and so on …
  9. Restart the print spooler
  10. Install the new printer drivers
  11. Test printing