Solved Problems removing a printer

[DeaconFrost]

I'm having trouble removing two local printers from one of my coworkers computer. It's a Dell running Windows 7 x86 Professional. She has local admin rights, so that's not the issue.

Her spooler service randomly stops, and won't stay running. She has, in Devices and Printers, an old Ricoh printer listed. It's grayed out, and I can click to delete it. However, the drivers won't delete because it says the printer is still in use. It hasn't been connected to her computer in a year. Her new Dell 1320c Color Laser is listed as well, but I can't delete that either. I was trying to delete it, and re-add to solve spooler issue, but I'm now thinking the Ricoh is to blame, because there are 2 documents in it's queue.

So, my question is this. How do I forcibly remove a printer? Is there a way through the registry, so that I can then delete it's drivers?

 

[TVeblen]

Hey DeaconFrost.

Have you tried this to clear the Print Spooler yet?
http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/89483-print-spooler-queue-clear-reset.html

I don't suppose that old Ricoh printer is still around? I think some older printers need to be connected (recognized) to be removed.

EDIT: Are these printers shared with other computers on the LAN?

 

[DeaconFrost]

Yes, I've been able to restart the spooler, many times, but I haven't cleared the queue. I'll give that a shot.

The printer died and was recycled, so I don't have it around anymore.

This was a local USB printer, with no sharing enabled.

 

[TVeblen]

The reason I mentioned it (sharing) was that if there is more than one computer in a home network and the problem PC shares it's local printer with one of the other computers you can get that problem. Particularly with older OS.

I had an XP machine that shared my (now gone) All-In-One. It was the deal where I needed to install the printer drivers for XP on the XP machine to print to the shared printer on my W7 machine. When I deleted the printer in W7 to make way for the new one the old printer would keep showing up until I realized I needed to uninstall it on the XP machine too.

Also:
The printer connections (to non-direct connected printers) are listed in the registry under
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Printers\Connections

PRINTUI command line option is reported to be useful in deleting stubborn printers. (Note: I have never used this. It is something I have bookmarked in my “Tips” folder because it sounds useful)
Rundll32 printui.dll,PrintUIEntry

Hope that helps!

 

[DeaconFrost]

I guess the queue was the problem. That extra step allowed me to finally delete the old printer and remove the drivers, and then do the same for her current printer. I updated it's drivers and now all is well.

Thanks!

 

[TVeblen]

Cool .