Completely Remove a Printer and Its Driver (11 & 10)
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Jake's shop has gone through three printers in the last year, and every time he swaps one out, the old one keeps turning up in the Print dialog for weeks afterward — grayed out, offline, but somehow still there. The fix in both Windows 11 and Windows 10 has the same shape: open Settings (or the classic Devices and Printers panel), select the printer, and remove it. Here's the part almost nobody mentions, though: clicking Remove device only deletes the icon. The printer driver stays installed on your PC in Device Manager and the print spooler, which is exactly why a "removed" printer keeps reappearing, prints to the wrong queue, or won't let a replacement install cleanly.
Both operating systems keep printer management in roughly the same place conceptually, but Microsoft moved the door twice since this post was first written in December 2016. Back then, "Devices and Printers" in Control Panel was the only route, and that is still true on Windows 10 today. Windows 11 moved the everyday path into the Settings app, though the old Control Panel view is still sitting underneath it for anyone who needs the deeper controls.
Removing the icon is the easy 80% of this job. The other 20% — the driver, the phantom registry entries, the shared network copy other people still depend on — is where most guides stop and most support tickets start. We'll go through every layer: the icon, the driver, the registry leftovers, the PowerShell version for anyone managing more than one PC, and the specific things that go wrong at each stage.
Removing a printer in Windows 11
Windows 11's everyday printer management lives in Settings, not Control Panel. Microsoft folded printers into the Bluetooth & devices section, which trips people up the first time — a wired USB printer has nothing to do with Bluetooth, but that's where the panel sits.
Method 1: Settings (the fast way)
1) Press Win + I to open Settings directly — this is the gear-icon app, separate from the classic Control Panel.
2) Select Bluetooth & devices in the left-hand list.
3) Select Printers & scanners.
4) Click the printer you want gone. This expands its entry with a Manage link and a printer queue view.
5) Select Remove device, then confirm.
A faster route for the same page: press Win + R, type ms-settings:printers, and press Enter. That command opens Printers & scanners directly, skipping the menu navigation entirely — useful if you're doing this on more than one machine in a hurry.
🙋♂️ Jake's Reality Check
"I did all that. Clicked Remove device, watched it disappear from the list. Then a customer's laptop tried to print to it an hour later and it was back — same name, same icon — like nothing happened."
That's the driver, not the icon. Settings only ever removes the queue entry. If the printer is still physically connected, or Windows rediscovers it on the network, it reinstalls itself from the driver that's still sitting on the PC. Removing the icon and removing the printer are two different jobs, and Microsoft's Remove device button only ever does the first one. The full fix is in the driver-removal section below.
Method 2: Devices and Printers (still there, still works)
Windows 11 kept the old Control Panel applet alive for anyone who prefers it, and it still shows things Settings doesn't — printer server properties, port details, sharing options. To get to it, press Win + R, type control printers, and press Enter. Right-click the printer, choose Remove device, and confirm.
Right-click on a printer icon here still opens the same classic context menu it always has — there's no "Show more options" step to fight through, which is the trap on File Explorer icons but not this particular applet. It's one of the few corners of Windows 11 where the old right-click menu never got condensed.
Removing a printer in Windows 10
Windows 10 never split printer management into two apps the way Windows 11 did, so the path is a little more direct: Settings > Devices > Printers & scanners — no "Bluetooth &" prefix, since that got bolted on later. Select the printer, click Remove device, confirm. Devices and Printers in Control Panel works exactly the same way it always has: right-click, Remove device.
These steps are the same as Windows 11 in every way that matters — select, remove, confirm — the only real difference is where the menu item sits.
🕐 The honest Windows 10 line
Windows 10 stopped getting free security updates on October 14, 2025. It still boots, still prints, and this guide still applies to it. If the PC only exists to feed this printer and nothing else, that's a fine reason to leave it alone. If it's also the machine you bank or shop from, look into Extended Security Updates (enroll through Windows Update — it's still open for enrollment) or moving that PC's workload to a Windows 11 machine, since eligible hardware from the last five or six years usually qualifies.
The part everyone skips: removing the driver, not just the icon
This is where the original version of this guide focused, and it's still the right instinct. Removing a printer's icon is a cosmetic change. The driver is a separate piece of software that sits in Device Manager whether or not a printer icon exists, and Windows will happily reattach it to any device it thinks matches.
⚠️ What leftover drivers actually break
A leftover driver isn't just clutter. It's the reason a replacement printer with the same brand sometimes installs using the wrong driver version, why a "removed" printer reappears the moment it's plugged into a USB port again, and why some print jobs silently route to a device that no longer physically exists.
Device Manager (works the same on 11 and 10)
1) Right-click the Start button and choose Device Manager.
2) Find and expand Print queues (this holds modern printer entries) or Printers (older driver-model devices, or Bluetooth & other devices for wireless models) — expand whichever category shows an arrow next to it.
3) Right-click the printer entry and choose Uninstall device.
4) A checkbox appears: Attempt to remove the driver for this device. Check it.
5) Click Uninstall, then restart the PC. The driver won't fully release from the system until after the restart, even though the entry disappears from Device Manager immediately.
Print Server Properties (the most reliable route)
This is the method the original 2016 version of this post pointed to, and it's aged well — it's still the single most complete way to remove a driver, because it works on the driver package itself, not just the device that's using it.
1) Open Devices and Printers (control printers in the Run box works on both versions).
2) Click any printer icon once to select it, then click Print server properties in the toolbar above the list.
3) Switch to the Drivers tab.
4) Select the driver you want gone and click Remove.
5) Windows offers two options: remove the driver only, or remove the driver and the driver package. Choose the second one if you never want to see that printer model on this PC again — the driver package is the source file store Windows draws from every time it reinstalls something.
✅ Why this is the one to use
Ethan's take is blunt about it: "Chasing a phantom printer through Device Manager over and over is a driver problem, not a device problem, and Print Server Properties is where the driver actually lives. Go there first and skip the guesswork." Device Manager removes what's attached; Print Server Properties removes what Windows keeps in reserve to reattach later. For a printer that keeps coming back, that difference is the whole fix.
What changed since we first covered this in 2016
🕐 What changed since we first wrote this
- Then (2016): the only route was Devices and Printers in Control Panel, and driver removal happened through Print Server Properties — exactly as described above.
- Now: Windows 11 added a Settings-based path (Bluetooth & devices > Printers & scanners) as the front door, and PowerShell's PrintManagement module made the whole job scriptable.
- What that means for you: the 2016 steps still work on both operating systems today. Nothing in this guide was wrong then — Microsoft just built a second, faster door next to the original one.
PowerShell and the registry, for the power user
If you're managing more than one PC, or the icon simply won't remove through the GUI, PowerShell's PrintManagement module does the same job as Settings and Print Server Properties from a command line, and it's built into both Windows 11 and Windows 10 — no separate install needed.
Removing the printer queue
Open PowerShell as Administrator and run:
Remove-Printer -Name "Printer Name"
Use the exact name shown by Get-Printer if you're not sure of the spelling — printer names often carry port numbers or manufacturer suffixes that don't match what's shown on the icon.
Removing the driver
Remove-PrinterDriver -Name "Driver Name"
Run Get-PrinterDriver first to see the exact driver name Windows has on file — it's frequently different from the friendly printer name, especially on HP and Brother devices that ship several driver variants under one product line.
The registry, for entries nothing else will touch
Occasionally a printer survives every method above and still shows up somewhere — usually a Print dialog dropdown in an older application. That's a leftover registry key, not a live device. It's stored under:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Print\Printers
Open Registry Editor (regedit in the Run box, admin rights required), navigate to that key, find the subfolder matching the printer's name, and delete it. This is registry surgery, so it's worth a quick export of that key first (right-click it, Export) in case anything looks different than expected afterward.
Removing a network or shared printer
A network printer — one connected over Wi-Fi or Ethernet rather than USB — removes exactly the same way through Settings, Control Panel, or Remove-Printer. It doesn't need to be online or reachable; you're only deleting your PC's local record of it, not sending it a command.
Shared printers work differently depending on which side you're on. If your PC is the one physically connected to the printer and sharing it out to the network, removing it there deletes the share for everyone connected to it — check who's using it first. If your PC only connects to someone else's shared printer, removing it locally is a one-way, no-consequence action; the printer, and everyone else's access to it, stays exactly as it was.
When the printer keeps coming back anyway
This is the failure mode almost every reader eventually hits, so it's worth walking through by symptom rather than treating it as one problem.
It reappears the moment you plug the cable back in
The driver is still installed and Windows detected the hardware again through Plug and Play. This is normal, expected behavior, not a bug — you removed the icon, not the driver. Go back to the Print Server Properties or PowerShell driver removal above.
It reappears on its own with no cable involved
A network printer being periodically rediscovered by network discovery, or a printer that was set up through a Microsoft account and is syncing back down from cloud-saved device settings. Removing it locally again will hold until the next sync cycle unless the driver is also gone.
Print Server Properties gives an error, or the Remove button is grayed out
That almost always means the driver is currently in use by another queue, or a print job is stuck in the spooler and holding a lock on it. Open services.msc, find Print Spooler, right-click and choose Restart, then try the removal again. If it still won't budge, the driver is shared by more than one printer entry — remove the other entry first.
Uninstalling the printer's software completely
Everything above deals with the printer entry and its driver. Most manufacturers — HP, Canon, Epson, Brother — also install a separate bundled app: scanning software, an ink-level monitor, a status tray icon. None of the printer-removal steps above touch that. To get rid of it, go to Settings > Apps > Installed apps (Windows 11) or Settings > Apps > Apps & features (Windows 10), search for the manufacturer's name, and uninstall the bundled software the same way you'd remove any other program.
🙋♂️ Jake's Reality Check
"I removed the printer and the driver both. But there's still an ink-monitor icon in my tray nagging me to buy cartridges for a printer that's in a landfill."
That's a separate app, not the printer. Manufacturer bundleware installs independently and keeps running whether or not the printer or driver still exists. Uninstall it from the Apps list like any other program.
Before you remove it: two things worth checking
Two quick checks before you commit, since a removal can't be undone on the spot and both of these have cost Jake's shop real time.
Check the queue first. Removing a printer cancels every job still waiting in its queue, printed or not. If a job matters, open the queue from the printer's Manage screen and confirm nothing important is sitting there before you remove the device.
Check who else uses it, if it's shared. Jake once removed the shop's front-desk printer mid-afternoon to fix a driver conflict, not realizing the laptop at the repair bench was printing customer receipts through that same share. It cost him twenty minutes of confused customers and a re-share afterward. If a printer's name suggests it might be shared, a thirty-second check on the Sharing tab of its properties beats redoing the setup later.
Frequently asked questions
Does removing a printer in Windows also delete the driver?
No. Remove device only deletes the queue entry and icon. The driver stays in Device Manager and the driver store until you remove it separately through Print Server Properties, Device Manager's Uninstall device, or PowerShell's Remove-PrinterDriver.
Why does my printer keep reappearing after I remove it?
The driver and its Plug and Play entry are still installed. If the printer gets rediscovered — plugged back in, or found again on the network — Windows reinstalls it silently using the leftover driver.
Can I remove a printer I don't have physical access to?
Yes. Settings, Control Panel, and Remove-Printer all work on printers that are offline, disconnected, or network devices that no longer exist. You're only deleting a local record, not communicating with the device.
What happens to my print history when I remove a printer?
Its queue and job history clear along with it, and anything still pending is cancelled. Check the queue before removing if a job matters.
Do I need admin rights to remove a printer?
Not for the queue itself — Settings, Control Panel, and Remove-Printer don't require it. Removing the driver through Device Manager, Print Server Properties, or Remove-PrinterDriver does require an administrator account.
Will removing a shared printer affect other people on the network?
If you remove it on the PC hosting the share, yes — everyone connected loses access. If you only remove your own connection to someone else's shared printer, nobody else is affected.
What's the difference between Remove device and Uninstall for a printer?
Remove device deletes the queue and icon but leaves the driver installed. Uninstall, in Device Manager, removes the Plug and Play device entry and, with the checkbox ticked, the driver software too.
Can I remove a printer using PowerShell?
Yes. Remove-Printer deletes the queue and Remove-PrinterDriver deletes the driver. Both are part of the PrintManagement module built into Windows 11 and Windows 10.
My printer isn't listed in Settings or Control Panel, how do I remove it?
That's a phantom entry left behind in the registry, usually under HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Print\Printers. Deleting the matching key there, or targeting it by exact name with Remove-Printer, clears it.
Should I delete the printer driver or just disable it?
Disable it if you might reconnect the same printer soon. Delete it if the printer is gone for good or the driver itself is causing a recurring problem.
Does removing a printer cancel jobs stuck in the queue?
Yes, immediately. If a job is genuinely stuck rather than something you meant to cancel, restarting the Print Spooler service usually clears it without needing to remove the printer at all.
Can I remove a network printer that's offline?
Yes, offline and network printers remove the same way as local ones. Being unreachable doesn't block removal since only the local record is being deleted.
Will Windows automatically reinstall my printer after I remove it?
Only if it's detected again and the driver is still present. Remove the driver too and there's nothing left for Windows to reinstall it from.
Is it safe to remove a Microsoft Print to PDF or Microsoft XPS printer?
Safe, but they're Windows optional features rather than ordinary printers, so they can reappear after certain updates. To keep them gone permanently, turn them off under Optional Features instead of just removing the icon.
Revision note. Originally published December 26, 2016. Rewritten August 24, 2026 for Windows 11 and Windows 10. The core method — Print Server Properties for driver removal — hasn't changed at all; Microsoft has simply added a Settings-based front door in Windows 11 and a PowerShell route for anyone managing this on more than one PC. If you've been fighting a printer that just won't stay gone, you're not missing something obvious — you were just one step short of the driver, and now you've got the whole path.