Remove Print Drivers from Windows 7
Faulty print drivers can give you a lot of headaches. In my case, print spooler was constantly crashing, or it was crashing when I tried to open Print Properties of the Print Device. I had to remove print drivers causing issues.
Since the problem is mostly in a faulty print driver here are the steps on how to remove print drivers from Windows 7. Procedure is slightly different from previous Operating Systems as now we’ll have to use the Print Management tool.
Click Start (Win Orb)
Type: ‘Print Management‘
In the left pane navigate to: Print Servers | PC Name (local) | Drivers
Delete the faulty print driver, or if you’re not sure, delete all of the Print Drivers listed.
Restart and try to download another/updated driver for your printer from the manufacturer’s web site.
Another option is to run prndrvr.vbs -x (in the folder Printing_Admin_Scripts in the system32 folder) to remove unused drivers after removing printers, or to run prnmngr.vbs -x to remove all printers if you’re staying at the command line (also in the Printing_Admin_Scripts folder).
prndrvr.vbs is available only in Windows Vista and Windows 7 or?
Win7 only.
Correction – Win7 and Vista (was not looking at a clean machine…. :-)).
type “print management” and the screen flashes something too quick to see and reverts to desktop. followed help guide to accessing print management under system and security, administrative tools.. but there is no Print management listed there..
win7 64bit home premium version.. anyone know HOW to get to this “print management” thing?
It seems that print management is not available in the home premium version of Windows 7.
http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/windows_7-hardware/print-management-missing-in-windows-7-home-premium/a0ef1d46-f6df-45ab-9a14-84e61316f1d4
I’m using Win 7 64 bit Home Premium.
1. Start->Devices and Printers
2. Highlight any of the printer icon under “Printers and Faxes” heading
3. You’ll see some additional top menu bar items appear.
4. Access Printer Server Properties->Drivers
And you’ll be able to remove whatever driver listed on screen
thank sss for helping me ……
right click on print manager when it comes up and choose “run as administrator”. I was getting the “quick flash” and gone before I did the run as admin.
Comes up correctly now.
Had same issue ……… read through your comments above and had success
Win 7 Pro
Running trouble shoot after right clicking the printer icon in “Device & Printers” this picked up the issue of print functions in queue (2 of the buggers which would not delete, pause or cancel)) and allowed Win 7 to clear then all good
thanks guys