A more detailed look at the printer driver options is provided in Exploring the Driver Options in the Wizard. Instructions Select features for the basic driver. In Visual Studio, in the main menu, click File New Project. In the New Project window, in the top-right search box, type printer driver v4 and press enter. This will retrieve all driver templates whose names contain the search text. In computers, a printer driver or a print processor is a piece of software on a computer that converts the data to be printed to a format that a printer can understand. The purpose of printer drivers is to allow applications to do printing without being aware of the technical details of each printer model. Printer drivers should not be confused with print spoolers, which queue print jobs and send them successively to a printer.
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If you’re a mobile user working with a laptop, there’s a good chance that you connect to various printers in different locations, which you may only use once or twice. After a while, without realizing it, you can end up with a lot of printers installed on your device.
Sure, you can simply delete the ones you don’t need from the Settings app, but what you may not know is that deleting a printer doesn’t delete its driver. They are actually stored in an inventory, in case you need them again. Although this is a good approach, if you know for sure that you’ll no longer need the driver, you can keep things organized, free up a little bit of space, and prevent possible printer driver problems by deleting the driver completely from Windows 10 or older versions.
In this guide, you’ll learn the steps to delete printer drivers from your Windows 10 device completely.
How to delete a printer completely from Windows 10
To remove a printer and driver from your computer is a two step process.
Removing printer using Settings
To remove a printer from Windows 10, use these steps:
- Open Settings.
- Click on Devices.
- Click on Printers & scanners.
- Under the “Printers & scanners” section, select the printer that you want to remove.
- Click the Remove device button.
- Click the Yes button.
Once you’ve completed the steps, you can proceed to delete the driver from your computer.
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Alternatively, if you’re still running Windows 7 or Windows 8.1, you can remove a printer from Control Panel > Hardware and Sound > Devices and Printers, right-clicking the printer and selecting the Remove device option.
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Deleting printer driver using Print Management
To delete a printer driver, use these steps:
- Open Start.
- Search for Control Panel and click the top result to open the experience.
- Click on System and Security.
- Click on Administrative Tools.
- Double-click the Print Management option.
- Expand the Custom Filters branch.
- Click on All Drivers.
- Right-click the driver on right, and select the Delete option.
- Click the Yes button.
After completing the steps, the printer driver will be gone from your device. If you have additional printers, you’ll need to repeat the steps to completely remove them from your device.
Update January 28, 2019: This guide was originally published in July 2012, and it’s been updated to reflect the changes to remove a print driver from Windows 10 as well as on previous versions.
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Although many printer manufacturers are keeping their drivers functional with Windows 10, if you have an older printer it might not be officially supported. But the end of official driver support doesn't necessarily have to mean the end of your printer. Follow these steps below to install non-compatible drivers on Windows 10.
How to install non-compatible printer drivers on Windows 10
In this case I will download the Canon SELPHY CP800 Windows 7 driver and install it on Windows 10. Download the driver from the specific website, plug in the printer through a USB port, then follow these steps.
- Right-click on the driver file.
- Click on Troubleshoot compatibility.
- Click on Troubleshoot program.
- Check the box that says The program worked in earlier versions of Windows but won't install or run now.
- Click on Next.
- Click on Windows 7.
- Click on Next.
- Click on Test the program.
Windows 10 might ask you for permission to install. Allow the driver manufacturer to make changes to your PC. The driver will now install and your printer will be ready for use following installation.
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If the installation doesn't begin and you encounter an error, make sure your printer is connected to your computer.
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Did these steps work for you? Let us know in the comment section below, and don't forget to add anything we might have missed.