Deleting a Printer

Written by Allen Wyatt (last updated January 7, 2019)

Windows can work with a wide assortment of printers, and over time you may change the number and type of printers that have been connected to your system. At some point you may want to delete a printer driver—you may no longer have the printer or it may no longer be accessible from your system. You can delete a printer from Windows 10 by following these steps:

  1. Display the Control Panel.
  2. Click on View Devices and Printers under the Hardware and Sound heading. You may have to scroll down a bit to find the Printers section. (See Figure 1.)
  3. Figure 1. The Devices and Printers screen.

  4. Right-click on the printer you want to remove. Windows displays a Context menu.
  5. Choose Remove Device from the Context menu. Windows asks you to confirm your request.
  6. Click Yes. The printer is removed from Devices and Printers screen.

If you are using Windows 8, the beginning steps are a bit different:

  1. Display the Control Panel.
  2. Click the Hardware and Sound category link.
  3. Click the Devices and Printers category link. Windows displays the Devices and Printers screen.
  4. Right-click on the printer you want to delete. Windows displays a Context menu.
  5. Choose Remove Device from the Context menu. Windows asks you to confirm your request.
  6. Click Yes. The printer is removed from the Devices and Printers screen.
  1. If you are using Windows 7, follow these steps:
  2. Click Start and then click Devices and Printers. Windows 7 displays the Devices and Printers screen.
  3. Right-click on the printer you want to remove. Windows 7 displays a Context menu.
  4. Choose Remove Device from the Context menu. Windows 7 asks you to confirm that you really want to remove the printer.
  5. Click Yes. The printer is removed from the Devices and Printers screen.

 This tip (10720) applies to Windows 7, 8, and 10.

Author Bio

Allen Wyatt

With more than 50 non-fiction books and numerous magazine articles to his credit, Allen Wyatt is an internationally recognized author. He is president of Sharon Parq Associates, a computer and publishing services company. ...

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