Cannot Delete Bonjour Created Printers

I have thoroughly deleted Apple's "Bonjour For Windows" application from my Windows 7 Home Premium PC because it simply would not work. It would not allow me to access or use my Canon MP530 printer which uses a USB connection to our desktop iMac. I tried to delete the "printers" created by Bonjour prior to uninstalling the software. That did not work. Now I cannot delete the printers after the software is thoroughly gone either.

Can anyone tell me how I can get rid of these Bonjour-created printers from my Devices and Printers container? I suspect they are interfering with my ability to access and use the printer using a strictly Windows 7 configuration / setup (Which is NOT easy to establish. Contrary to Microsoft advertising, working through a network setup like we have is unclear, the printer is not discovered or discoverable, and the network administrator I'm supposed to check with is ME.).

Other Factors Which May Have A Bearing:

1. The iMac and Win 7 PC are connected to the Internet and each other via a Siemens Speedstream Gigaset SE567 router. The iMac and PC are connected to the router via ethernet. The router also provides wireless access to a Windows XP laptop and a Macbook Pro.

2. No, it is not possible to directly connect the printer to the router or PC. It must remain connected to the iMac (family preferences and politics rule here).

3. Bonjour worked very well for us to enable printing from the PC through the router then the iMac (providing the wife had not turned it off or to sleep) when the PC was running Vista. Bonjour printing under Win 7 beta and RC was flaky and intermittent. I also could not delete Bonjour created printers under Win 7 beta or RC. I could only create new ones to try out different configuration options.

4. Windows 7 was a clean install. The version of Bonjour attempted with Win 7 is the latest (1.0.6) I could find and freshly downloaded and installed.

5. Other commentators found on this and similar forums are now warning that Bonjour is not compatible with Windows 7. This is not too surprising as all of the Bonjour related help available on the Apple site assumes the user is running an Airport router. Which we are not.

I have the exact same issue, my friend. Although, I am quite taken aback as to how you got a printer to work through Bonjour on your Vista; I sure never was able to. ._.;

I couldn't have posted this thread better than you did; great job in thoroughness and clarity, man. ^^;

Now to wait for an answer... I will let you know if I figure anything else out. But for now, I think we are stuck with an annoying, not-working printer that we cannot delete... =\

TimOlaguna said:

I have thoroughly deleted Apple's "Bonjour For Windows" application from my Windows 7 Home Premium PC because it simply would not work. It would not allow me to access or use my Canon MP530 printer which uses a USB connection to our desktop iMac. I tried to delete the "printers" created by Bonjour prior to uninstalling the software. That did not work. Now I cannot delete the printers after the software is thoroughly gone either.

Can anyone tell me how I can get rid of these Bonjour-created printers from my Devices and Printers container? I suspect they are interfering with my ability to access and use the printer using a strictly Windows 7 configuration / setup (Which is NOT easy to establish. Contrary to Microsoft advertising, working through a network setup like we have is unclear, the printer is not discovered or discoverable, and the network administrator I'm supposed to check with is ME.).

Other Factors Which May Have A Bearing:

1. The iMac and Win 7 PC are connected to the Internet and each other via a Siemens Speedstream Gigaset SE567 router. The iMac and PC are connected to the router via ethernet. The router also provides wireless access to a Windows XP laptop and a Macbook Pro.

2. No, it is not possible to directly connect the printer to the router or PC. It must remain connected to the iMac (family preferences and politics rule here).

3. Bonjour worked very well for us to enable printing from the PC through the router then the iMac (providing the wife had not turned it off or to sleep) when the PC was running Vista. Bonjour printing under Win 7 beta and RC was flaky and intermittent. I also could not delete Bonjour created printers under Win 7 beta or RC. I could only create new ones to try out different configuration options.

4. Windows 7 was a clean install. The version of Bonjour attempted with Win 7 is the latest (1.0.6) I could find and freshly downloaded and installed.

5. Other commentators found on this and similar forums are now warning that Bonjour is not compatible with Windows 7. This is not too surprising as all of the Bonjour related help available on the Apple site assumes the user is running an Airport router. Which we are not.

Update: I made many attempts to create a working printer following Microsoft's (and Microsoft supportive blogger's) instructions for adding a printer under Windows 7. I tried to create both various local printers and network printers. While each attempt did create a printer in "Control Panel > All Control Panel Items > Devices and Printers" none of them worked. Either the print job would vanish in thin air or I would get an error message of the obscure kind. And every time I followed up on the error message by allowing Microsoft to diagnose and fix the problem I would always end up receiving the direction to consult my administrator. The only good thing that came from these efforts was that these malfunctioning printer setups, unlike the Bonjour-created ones, would delete themselves when I told them too.

One of the things I did not mention before is that my home PC (HP Media Center [m8120n]) is set up to offer dual booting. If I do nothing for about 40 seconds after I turn it on it boots up as a Windows 7 PC. Or I can choose to have it boot up as a Linux PC running Ubuntu 9.10.

So guess what happens when I tell the Linux PC it to print a page originally created on the Win 7 side in Microsoft Word but loaded into OpenOffice under Ubuntu? Or a web page loaded into Firefox? It prints! Beautifully and quickly! From the PC, through the router, then the iMac and out the Canon MP530 printer.

This told me that port UDP 5353 was not being blocked by my internal router and the iMac was not raising any internal security blocks against print jobs coming from the PC under Ubuntu. Examining the settings under Ubuntu I confirmed the printer was identified as "mp530" and it was printing to my network's internal IP address xxx.xxx.254.3:631.

I decided to boot up as a Windows 7 PC and try Bonjour once again. This time a more thorough investigation of the Windows firewall confirmed that (after re-installation) Bonjour was identified as a recognized application allowed access.

But none of the printer setups previously created by Bonjour worked. Nor could I delete them. New ones I tried to establish would not allow me to specify they print to internal IP address xxx.xxx.254.3:631. (One created by Bonjour did report it was set to internal IP address xxx.xxx.254.3:631\printers\mp530. But that one would not work either. Trying to eliminate the "\printers\mp530" portion of the setting generated a "you can't do that" error message.)

I finally gained some success when I decided to try non-Canon drivers offered by Bonjour. HP drivers also would not work. The setting "Generic" and "MS Publisher Color Printer" does. At least for now.

Does this mean Bonjour successfully works with Windows 7? Not by my standards. More work on both of those needs to be done. Particularly when it appears CUPS works where Bonjour or Windows 7 print sevices do not.

Oh, and I'm still stuck with five non-working Bonjour-created printers I cannot delete from my Windows 7 "Control Panel > All Control Panel Items > Devices and Printers".

Skriscan said:

I have the exact same issue, my friend. Although, I am quite taken aback as to how you got a printer to work through Bonjour on your Vista; I sure never was able to. ._.;
=\

I think I recall finding and applying some code setting on the iMac which came with a warning that it was not supported and only slightly reduced the security of the machine. But lowered it just enough to let Bonjour do its work. But that was before the C:\ drive on my HP PC (wich naturally came with Vista built in and no install discs) went south, I lost whatever records I had of that "fix", and I decided to install Windows 7 RC just to get back in business.

Thanks for your kind and supportive words. I really appreciate them.

Huh; well I really hate to sound like such an amateur >.< But I'm not sure I understand you completely.

Nevertheless, I think I have figured out the way to get rid of those pesky printers that won't go away. It is almost like one of those things where it is so simple that you overlook it. All I did to get rid of mine was go to Control Panel, Uninstall A Program, and uninstalled everything that was listed there under the company name 'Canon'. And poof! All gone. At least that's what worked for me. o_o;

Thank you so much for updating with what you've found out. ^^; If you find anything else out, please let me know. I will do the same!

Skriscan said:

Huh; well I really hate to sound like such an amateur >.< But I'm not sure I understand you completely.

Nevertheless, I think I have figured out the way to get rid of those pesky printers that won't go away. It is almost like one of those things where it is so simple that you overlook it. All I did to get rid of mine was go to Control Panel, Uninstall A Program, and uninstalled everything that was listed there under the company name 'Canon'. And poof! All gone. At least that's what worked for me. o_o;

Thank you so much for updating with what you've found out. ^^; If you find anything else out, please let me know. I will do the same!

This is one of the more eloquently articulated threads I've seen on this subject.

It seems that through a twist of fate I have had a bit of a struggle with this very issue as well. And, after some analysis, I discovered that the problem really lies with setting up a printer to print through an IPP(Internet Printing Protocol) port. Specifically, in my case, printing to an HP Photosmart printer shared from a Mac using the Tiger OS from an HP Pavilion dv4 laptop running Windows 7 Home Premium.

In previous versions of Mac OS X, it was sometimes necessary to uncomment a couple of code statements in two specific configuration files in the /etc/cups directory on the Mac. These two files are the mime.convs and mime.types files.
Near the end of the mime.convs is
#application/octet-stream application/vnd.cups-raw 0, and near the end of the mime.types file is the statement
#application/octet-stream.

To uncomment these lines, you must remove the # sign. Using the pico text editor is the simplest way. This will enable RAW printing for the printers in CUPS, or Common Unix Printing System. I checked these files on my Mac and found that these lines were not actually commented out, and it may be attributable to the fact that I had already set up a RAW printer in CUPS.

Before you can print to the shared Mac printer, you must manually create a new printer entry for the printer in CUPS, and you must use a shorter name for the printer not longer than 8 characters, as this will also cause problems with Windows, as I have found out myself. CUPS is accessible through Safari on the Mac through the address http://127.0.0.1:631. Set up for the printer is intuitive from there.

Next, you must install the IPP printer in Windows 7. This is where I encountered some strange things. First, there are actually 2 HP laptops in the house. One is running Windows 7 Home Premium, the other which I use, Windows 7 Professional. After I created a new printer in CUPS on the Mac with a shorter name, I was actually able to create a printer in Windows 7 Professional with Bonjour which worked. However, recreating the very same process on the same type of laptop under Windows 7 Home Premium did NOT work! Go figure.

What's even more annoying about this is that the actual fix for Home Premium is so simple that it is very easy to overlook. Do not use Bonjour, for the reasons of not being able to easily remove the printers which do not work. Besides, it does not work in Home Premium anyway. Use the printer wizard and select add a network printer. I have found a posting with screenshots that walk you through the set up process using the Windows 7 Add Printer Wizard. Here is the link:

IP Printing Through Windows 7 &mdash; Techdocs

After going through what I went through to get this to work, I was a little annoyed. But, it worked! So I'm happy

As for the printer removal with Bonjour, if you used the Windows 7 system drivers which are pre-loaded, about the only thing you can do is do a manual cleanse in the Windows Registry. This is what I had to do to remove the Bonjour printers which did not work.

Good Luck!

mrkirk said:

Skriscan said:

Huh; well I really hate to sound like such an amateur >.< But I'm not sure I understand you completely.

Nevertheless, I think I have figured out the way to get rid of those pesky printers that won't go away. It is almost like one of those things where it is so simple that you overlook it. All I did to get rid of mine was go to Control Panel, Uninstall A Program, and uninstalled everything that was listed there under the company name 'Canon'. And poof! All gone. At least that's what worked for me. o_o;

Thank you so much for updating with what you've found out. ^^; If you find anything else out, please let me know. I will do the same!

This is one of the more eloquently articulated threads I've seen on this subject.

It seems that through a twist of fate I have had a bit of a struggle with this very issue as well. And, after some analysis, I discovered that the problem really lies with setting up a printer to print through an IPP(Internet Printing Protocol) port. Specifically, in my case, printing to an HP Photosmart printer shared from a Mac using the Tiger OS from an HP Pavilion dv4 laptop running Windows 7 Home Premium.

In previous versions of Mac OS X, it was sometimes necessary to uncomment a couple of code statements in two specific configuration files in the /etc/cups directory on the Mac. These two files are the mime.convs and mime.types files.
Near the end of the mime.convs is
#application/octet-stream application/vnd.cups-raw 0, and near the end of the mime.types file is the statement
#application/octet-stream.

To uncomment these lines, you must remove the # sign. Using the pico text editor is the simplest way. This will enable RAW printing for the printers in CUPS, or Common Unix Printing System. I checked these files on my Mac and found that these lines were not actually commented out, and it may be attributable to the fact that I had already set up a RAW printer in CUPS.

Before you can print to the shared Mac printer, you must manually create a new printer entry for the printer in CUPS, and you must use a shorter name for the printer not longer than 8 characters, as this will also cause problems with Windows, as I have found out myself. CUPS is accessible through Safari on the Mac through the address http://127.0.0.1:631. Set up for the printer is intuitive from there.

Next, you must install the IPP printer in Windows 7. This is where I encountered some strange things. First, there are actually 2 HP laptops in the house. One is running Windows 7 Home Premium, the other which I use, Windows 7 Professional. After I created a new printer in CUPS on the Mac with a shorter name, I was actually able to create a printer in Windows 7 Professional with Bonjour which worked. However, recreating the very same process on the same type of laptop under Windows 7 Home Premium did NOT work! Go figure.

What's even more annoying about this is that the actual fix for Home Premium is so simple that it is very easy to overlook. Do not use Bonjour, for the reasons of not being able to easily remove the printers which do not work. Besides, it does not work in Home Premium anyway. Use the printer wizard and select add a network printer. I have found a posting with screenshots that walk you through the set up process using the Windows 7 Add Printer Wizard. Here is the link:

IP Printing Through Windows 7 &mdash; Techdocs

After going through what I went through to get this to work, I was a little annoyed. But, it worked! So I'm happy

As for the printer removal with Bonjour, if you used the Windows 7 system drivers which are pre-loaded, about the only thing you can do is do a manual cleanse in the Windows Registry. This is what I had to do to remove the Bonjour printers which did not work.

Good Luck!

Ahh, my friend, thank you so much for all of that input!

However...and I truly hate to say this, but . . . I really did not understand a lot of that.

BUT..... Up until now, I had given up on trying to connect this printer to this Windows 7 computer; but you have given me hope, and ... well, long story short, I GOT IT TO WORK.

Now, you may ask myself, like I do, HOW THE HECK?

I don't know... but I cannot express my joy enough right now. This wasn't even that hard to do... But here is what I did...

Whoever is reading this, I am guessing, does not need to do the first step which I did; I'm not positive (I'm sure it all depends), but probably not necessary. This first step is that I wiped my hard disc. (I got m Windows 7 disc, booted the computer from the disc, wiped the hard drive / partition thingy, reinstalled the OS, installed any automatic updates, and did not reinstall any software yet, so to make sure nothing might get in the way).

Now for the second step. First I tried many things, many many things, including simply adding the printer (which I did see on the list) from the Devices and Printers window, etc.. This did not work at all.
BUT THE VITAL SECOND STEP IS THIS:
1. Get to the Devices and Printers window (Start menu --> Devices and Printers).
2. Click "Add a printer".
3. Click "Add a local printer".
4. Make sure that "Use an existing port:" is selected, and "LPT1: (Printer Port)" is selected. (That's all default for me, so probably will be for you too). Click "Next".
5. Here it is, the vital part, CLICK ON "Windows Update"! Yeah...you may already have done that a while back, or already knew about this, etc...... but I had forgotten all about that. Just updates the lists of drivers; those lists never ever had the driver I needed; always stopped right before the printer version I have...


Third step: install Bonjour. Bonjour for Windows

Now, here is what is important. I am running Windows 7 Professional 64-bit. 64-bit is the key. I didn't see it at first, but the second paragraph on that page explains that there is a different download for 64-bit machines... So you better choose the right download!

I did all that... installed it, ran the Bonjour printer wizard, set up the printer, printed a test page, and VOILA. It works! So far, I have had absolutely no problems with it. What gets to me is that this seems to be WAY TOO SIMPLE to have slipped my dozens and dozens and dozens of attempts to set up this printer... I feel like a complete spaz.

Nevertheless, it is all set up and successful (so far) for me. I am still curious, however, as to why there are so many pages on this problem, because so many people are also having the problem... but this seems simple enough for someone to have figured out, yet I never found a solution this simple anywhere over the internet.
Only things such as this and stuff...hmmmm...

But I hope that anyone who has read all of these posts and still can't get this problem fixed for yourself, give your own feedback on this forum... I have a feeling there are still many other scenarios that this solution does not apply to...

Phew... took me over a half a year to figure this all out... about time it worked. Hoping this doesn't screw up later.

P.S. For the record, the printer I am using is a Canon PIXMA MP780, and in the Printer Drivers list, the one that I had to choose was called Canon Inkjet MP780. Also, the printer is connected directly (wired) to an iMac, which is connected to an Airport Extreme network, with Printer Sharing enabled.

P.S.S. I may have gotten this problem fixed, but I must say, there are SO MANY OTHER ISSUES with this Windows 7 computer connecting to the Airport Extreme network... I can get internet, but not all of the computers are shown in the network computers map / list thingy, etc. etc. File sharing ain't easy.

P.S.S.S. Please forgive the long post; I am not very good at writing, so I might have blabbered on a bit too much. ._.; But good luck to you all! Cheers.

"However...and I truly hate to say this, but . . . I really did not understand a lot of that.
"

That's OK. If you do not have much experience with Macintosh, some of that would probably look like Sanskrit. However, I do want to clarify some points from my last post which I feel were not clearly expressed.

First off, printer setup in CUPS. I wanted to clarify that if you are needing to set up a local printer in CUPS for purposes of sharing over a network with Windows PC's, make sure that you select the RAW printing protocol from the list during printer setup. This provides the WYSIWYG printing between the Windows PC and the Mac printer. In this way, the data is sent directly to the printer without any interference.

Second, if you are using Windows 7 Professional, you probably will be able to install a printer using the Bonjour client which is attached locally to a Mac without any further configuration on the Mac. I am not saying that this will definitely be the case, but it is possible. However, Windows 7 Home Premium is different. I could not get Bonjour to install the printer correctly, as the client would not configure the IPP port correctly. There do seem to be differences between the network components of both editions. As a result, I would not personally recommend using Bonjour with Home Premium. Use the Windows Add Printer wizard instead.

But remember, if a printer does not install correctly in either of the Windows 7 versions, or if you decide at some later date that you would like to remove a functioning printer for any reason, you are stuck with having to manually remove the printer from Windows through the registry. This is not a good thing. So, I recommend not using Bonjour with Windows 7 at all, at least until Apple decides to update Bonjour properly for use with Windows 7.

BUT..... Up until now, I had given up on trying to connect this printer to this Windows 7 computer; but you have given me hope, and ... well, long story short, I GOT IT TO WORK.

I am glad to see that you finally got it to work! And, thank you for posting the tips, as I'm sure that someone will benefit from them.

If it's still actual, try this: You cannot remove a printer that has the at sign &#40;&#64;&#41; in its name from a computer that is running Windows 7
It worked at my problem.
Kind regards,

Praefectus