Removing old print drivers

[Chris1980]

Using Server 2003 as a print server with XP clients.

I'm not sure if this is actually causing any problem but when a printer is replaced with another model the local client keeps the old driver files installed locally in C:\WINDOWS\System32\spool\DRIVERS\W32X86\3\ even though no connection to this model of printer is present.

When we replace a printer we tend to keep the same name and ip address as the last one so the users don't need to worry about changing anything on their systems but I have noticed that sometimes it takes a while for the model details to swap over and then sometimes errors can follow which match problems with the driver files.

My actual question is as to whether there is an easy way of removing old driver files automatically. Printers and Faxes - Files - Server properties isn't currently an option as local user rights don't allow them to remove drivers and this wouldn't be a seamless transfer for the users.

Am I missing some sort of basic way of doing this?

 

[pQi]

Here's the easy way to remove printers and printer drivers:

1. open a Command Prompt window and type the command:
net start spooler

a. If you get a message The requested service has already been started, this is OK because the Print Spooler service was already running, so proceed with the remainder of the “easy way”.

b. If you get the message The Print Spooler service was started successfully, proceed with the remainder of the "easy way".

c. If you get a message that indicates the Print Spooler could not be started or failed during startup, you'll have to use the "hard way".

2. open the Printers and Faxes folder

a. right click on the printer and select Delete

b. after the printer is deleted, click File, Server prop.

c. select the Drivers tab

d. select driver that is causing problem and click Remove

e. if you don't know which printer driver is causing the problem, repeat the immediately preceding step for all of the drivers



Here’s the hard way to remove printers and printer drivers:

1. Check in Control Panel, Add/Remove Programs; if there is an entry relating to one of the printers, select it, then click Change/Remove. Follow the dialog and Uninstall All or Remove All as appropriate. Some printer software has programs that show up here and it will be a good idea to remove those before going any further.

2. If the Print Spooler service is operational:

a. open the Printers and Faxes folder

b. delete all of the printers

c. click File, Server Properties

d. select the Drivers tab

e. for each entry:

i. select the entry

ii. click Remove

3. If the Print Spooler service is not operational you want to make certain there are no printer driver remnants:

a. open regedit (e.g. click Start, type regedit and press Enter) and navigate to:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Print\Environments\Windows NT x86\Drivers

b. under this key, there will be the keys Version-2 and Version-3 (one or the other of these may be absent - not a problem)

i. the sub-keys under these contain the printer driver configuration information

ii. delete all the sub-keys inside Version-2 and Version-3, but not these keys themselves

c. navigate to:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Print\Monitors

i. under this key there will be several sub-keys. These sub-keys have information about Printer Port Monitors

ii. delete all the sub-keys except:

· BJ Language Monitor

· Local Port

· Microsoft Document Imaging Writer Monitor

· PJL Language Monitor

· Standard TCP/IP Port

· USB Monitor

d. open a Command Prompt window

e. key the commands

net stop spooler

net start spooler

f. open Windows Explorer

g. navigate to %systemroot%\system32\spool\drivers\w32x86 (systemroot is usually c:\Windows, but it might be c:\winnt or something else; this is set when the OS is installed).

h. inside the w32x86 folder, there will be folders with the names 2 and 3 (one or more of these may be absent - not a problem)

i. delete all of the files and sub-folders in each of the 2 and 3 folders, but not the folders themselves

ii. delete any other folders with names starting with hewlett_packard, hphp or something else

i. restart the print spooler (see steps 8 and 9 above)

At this point, the system should be pretty well back to the way it was before any printers were installed.




Good Luck!