If you right click on a printer and delete it, this doesn’t remove the printer driver from the machine. Sometimes when working with print servers and testing multiple drivers there will be times when you need to completely remove a driver package from the machine so you can install a new or different one.
Windows Vista and Windows 7 has a tool called the Microsoft Management Console (MMC) built into windows which you will use to remove the drivers.
Step #1
Reboot the machine and login as “Administrator”.
Step #2
Go to the start menu and start typing MMC, you will see the Microsoft Management Console shortcut appear in the start menu; click on it.
MMC - Remove Print Driver
MMC
Step #3
Go up to the file menu and select Add/Remove Snap-in…
MMC - Add/Remove Snap-in...
Step #4
Then scroll down in the list and select the “Print Management” snap-in and then hit “Add”.
MMC - Print Management
Step #5
At this screen you are going to want to select “Add the Local Server”, hit Finish, and then hit ok.
MMC - Add the Local Server
Step #6
Then you can scroll down to your computer name, select the drivers tree and then right click on the driver you want to remove and select “Remove Driver Package”.
MMC - Remove Driver Package
Step #7
Make sure you reboot your machine before trying to add new or different print drivers.
Tags: Printer, Windows 7, Windows 7 Beta, Windows Vista
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Tried, didn’t work. No “Print Management” option exists in the snap in section on this computer (Windows 7 64 bit Home Premium). No obvious way to remove printer drivers for Win 7 home premium short of reinstalling Windows from scratch.
I got the same problem… No “Print Managemt” (Windows 7 64 bit Home Prmium)
Any suggestions out there?
I have the same issue. no printer management option in MMC for 64-bit Win 7. need to completely uninstall multple drivers. Need help!
The way to do this in Win7 is by highlighting an already installed printer, most likely Microsoft XPS Document Writer, and you’ll notice a new option at the top of the window “Print Server Properties”. Viola! Then just choose the drivers tab and remove all necessary drivers. Remember to clear any pending documents from your queue prior to removal.
Thanks Aramis for the useful tip. Alas, I am running into “the specified printer is in use” error message even though both PC and printer have been freshly rebooted and there are no print jobs sent.
[...] Most people suggest using Print Management in the Microsoft Management Console; alas, the former isn’t even listed as a snap-on in my version of Windows that came with this free Lenovo Nettop. And it seems like I’m not the only one facing this annoyance. [...]
I have done all you described and the specified printer driver is currently in use error reamins.
The printer in question no longer exists on the system. I have restarted the spooler. I am logged on as the local admin. All to no avail.
Sorry, forgat to mention I am running Windows 7 Professional and the original printer install was using A 2003 server with a Group policy and Printer Management. The system is not connected to the network and the policy has been removed.
For Win Vista, one has to make sure that their print spooler is still running.
I couldn’t get a list of of the drivers because my print spooler wasn’t running.
Once I had it running I could see the print drivers for all printers installed both locally and network.
However, I was still not able to remove driver packages, without having first deleting the printers from my printers list ( mind you am referring to network printers).
Was able to install new printer and all is working well.