Default Printer Issues in Office 365

Question

I'm using Office 365 in Windows 10.  Every time I open a document, the default printer is set to Microsoft Print to PDF.  I have to manually select my printer in order to print out on paper.  Even when I change it manually, print, save, and close, if I re-open the file, the default printer is always reset to the Print to PDF.  This happens in Word, Excel and Outlook.  I have not checked any other Office products yet, but these three are the ones I use 99% of the time.

I've reset my default printer through the control panel and through the Printers & Scanners Settings panel, and that clearly shows my printer as the default.  I do not have the box checked to let Windows manage my default printer.

Other programs such as Adobe automatically load my printer as the default (as they should), so it appears to be an issue only with Office 365.

Can anyone offer some guidance on how to solve this?

Answer 1

Hi Derek,

Thanks for your reply.

Based on your screenshot, we noticed that the Office applications are not installed in your computer, we suggest you go to portal.office.com with your Work or School account, and install Office 2016 from Office 365 portal.

Regards,

Tisky

Answer 2

Sorry for not updating this.  Apparently the problem was that Windows 10 comes with some pre-installed shell versions of Office.  Basically it's icons, but not actual programs.  When the real version of Office 365 is installed, it fails to delete the pre-installed versions and does not merge with them or work well with them.  Various bugs tend to arise, such as the default printer issue or not being able to create signatures in Outlook.  I had to delete Office 365 completely from the computer, then manually remove all the preloaded Office shells from Windows 10, then finally re-install Office 365.  It took a few tries, since if there's even one piece of the preloaded stuff left, you wind up with the same problems.  I seem to have it working fine now, though.

Answer 3

The online repair did not work.  I tried letting Windows manage my default printer, and now all my applications have the Print to PDF selection as the default, regardless of whether or not I just printed to my printer.

Answer 4

Hi Derek,

Does the problem still persist after the online repair?

Regards,

Tisky

Answer 5

I'd suggest doing an online repair of your installation. The instructions are here:

https://support.office.com/en-us/article/repair-an-office-application-7821d4b6-7c1d-4205-aa0e-a6b40c5bb88b