I installed a network printer with an incorrect driver and when I tried to replace it with the correct one on my Windows 7 Home Premium (32-bit) system, I found that it was quite impossible. I deleted the printer from the printer list and then tried to reinstall it; however, when it came to the part where it asks if I wanted to use the original driver or replace it with a new driver, no matter which option I chose, it would always use the original driver. Frustrating!!
I eventually realized that I needed to delete the driver, but I couldn’t find it. I checked the device manager, but there were no printers listed there. I also checked online and several sites told me to launch “Print Management”, but I could not find that option anywhere on any of my menus. I finally found some instructions that told me how to get to Print Management on a Windows 7 computer. (NOTE: This did not work for me, so skip this part and scroll down to see the final answer if you are on a Windows 7 Home Premium Machine.)
How to See Print Management on a Windows 7 Computer
(but not Windows 7 Home Premium!!!)
- Right click on the Windows orb (that round thingy at the bottom left corner of your screen).
- Select Properties.
- Under “Start Menu”, choose “Customize”.
- Look for the option “Administration Tools”. Yours is likely set to “do not display” right now. Change your selection to “Show under All Programs and Start Menu”.
- Click OK. Click OK again to close the Properties box.
- Click on the Windows orb again (left click this time) and look for “Administration Tools”. Click on it and look for “Print Management”
(I may not have the right names for everything above as I am working on a Japanese system and just translating what I am seeing on my Japanese system.)
HOWEVER, Print Management still did not show up as an option after I did that!! The reason is that Windows 7 Home Premium does not give you any way to access Print Management through menus. So, you have to do this instead.
How to See Print Management on a Windows 7 Home Premium Computer
- Click on the Windows Orb.
- Type cmd in the search box at the bottom of the menu.
- You will see the option of cmd.exe appear at the top of the menu. Click it.
- This will launch a window in which you can type direct commands into your computer.
- Type the following after the “greater than” sign (>): printui /s /t2
- This will magically open a Print Management screen.
From here you can delete the offensive driver and regain some of the sanity you lost through your previous attempts to get the printer to do what it was meant to do.
Thank you for this!! I don’t know why they had to hide this.
Seriously, eh?
There’s another way to access the Printer Management under Win 7 Home Premium.
1. Access Start (Win Orb) -> 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
My Win 7 is 64 bit, but I would assume it should work just as well on Win 7 32 bit.
okay, anyone know how to delete a printer that the system keeps saying isn’t there but keeps showing up? It won’t let me delete the driver because it says a printer is using it. It won’t show me properties of the printer because it says there is no printer by that name.
Thank you so very much, Shaney! You are the man! We have been struggling with this for several hours and this worked like a charm! it was an answer to our prayer, for sure.
To Terry: A possible solution for you could be this (one of the many things we did to get our printer drivers outta the computer). You may need to “force uninstall” a program. We kept trying to uninstall the program and it kept showing up until we did this. http://www.eugene2k.hubpages.com/hub/How-to-force-uninstall-a-program Essentially you are going to remove the program “keys”. I deleted anything that had HP on it. We wish you the best.
David & Tracy
Yayyyyyy!! Thank you so much for the solution, Shaney! Been at it for hours. Now my new printer able to work just fine! :D
“From here you can delete the offensive driver and regain some of the sanity you lost through your previous attempts to get the printer to do what it was meant to do.”
— You read the situation well. Thank you from my rubber room..
OK, what do I do? Printers don’t show in device manager at all. I can’t get a print management window even with the manual command. I have to stop the print spooler in order to get the printer and devices window to load, and then restart it manually to get the printer icons. They then show up but if I right click on one to try and change its settings the printer window stalls. I can’t change the default printer or delete one that I don’t want.
i run the cmd and try load the print manager and i get printer arguments invalid which is the same error message i get when installing the driver. My PC wont print to any printer yet when i move to another PC the printers are fine. Samsung SCX 4521f and 4729FD–HELP !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! been trying to resolve this for days and have tried loads of different fixes all to no avail.
Thank you so much for this awesome tip! Why Microsoft would make this so hard to get to is completely beyond me. Sanity is back again :)
Many thanks for that! Worked a treat to remove the old drivers I didn’t want or need.
Andy
This does not work on my computer I get printer argument invalid. Probably because Window Home Premium doe not have a print manager!
Thank you so much for your help!! Even though i don’t know how the command works. But still thanks! It works on my window 7 home premium!
Did not know about the DOS command so thanks Shaney!
@terry – with no documents open, try deleting All of your print queues, then restart your spooler. Use Shaney’s or Victor’s method of accessing the Print Management app and you should be able to remove the driver.
MY GOD THANK YOU. Please post this on all MS forums for people who are hunting the same thing. THIS IS THE ONLY SOLUTION THAT WORKED. THANK YOU AGAIN.
Thank you so much! I was so frustrated…until I found your beautifully simple, clearly explained solution! Yay for you!!
Linda