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Windows 10 deleted network printers re-appearing

OP 1 Reputation point
2021-11-09T18:03:43.78+00:00

Hi,
I have problem with duplicate network printers at windows 10. After deleting the network printer and then restarting the PC, the printer will be added again.

I can really do anything and always add myself again. Interestingly, it does this for specific printers. I tried to remove these keys where I found a really old printer, but it doesn't seem to help.

HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Print\V4 Connections
HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Print\Providers\Client Side Rendering Print Provider

After some time a particular printer will be added again, but it has capital letters! Other printers are fine. All printers are controlled via GPOs, but only some printers do so. What with this?

If I delete the duplicate printer (the one with capital letters), then I am not able to set the correct one as the default and throw an error.

Thank you very much for support.

Windows Server Printing
Windows Server Printing
Windows Server: A family of Microsoft server operating systems that support enterprise-level management, data storage, applications, and communications.Printing: Printer centralized deployment and management, scan and fax resources management, and document services
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  1. Alan Morris 1,326 Reputation points
    2021-11-10T00:37:37.293+00:00

    Make sure there are no printer connection registry keys here:
    HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Print\Connections

    These can be from policy or have been added when running the printui tool to a a "per machine" connection.

    If printui.exe or rundll32.exe calling printui.dll were used to add the printer connections data, it's best to use printui to remove the registry key.

    printui.exe /? will provide syntax when using this interface.

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  2. Michael Martins-Baptista 0 Reputation points
    2024-11-09T19:50:55.4066667+00:00

    Hi,

    I’ve just resolved a similar problem with printers deployed via group policy that would not change when the GPO was updated.

    Resolution is a powershell script that should be run under the system context on the endpoint. My environment uses NinjaOne but psexec should also work.

    Source code is listed in a public repo on my GitHub and can be accessed via URL:

    PowerShell-Windows_Endpoint_Troubleshooting_Toolkit/removeAllPrinters at main · michaelmartinsb/PowerShell-Windows_Endpoint_Troubleshooting_Toolkit · GitHub

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