Can't add new printer

Question

Hello,
I have a problem with the printer settings on Windows 10 Home (Version 21H2, Build 19044.1566). I use a German software called PDF24 where you can create, combine and reorganise PDF documents. This is possible due to a virtual PDF printer. Recently I tried to combine two PDF documents but I just got an error.

After some troubleshooting I found out that the PDF24 printer wasn't available. I try to reinstall different versions of the software but it didn't change anything at all. That's why I looked for different software like PDFCreator which also uses virtual PDF printers. The installation failed because the creation of a new printer wasn't possible.

I tried to add a new printer in the Devices and Printers tab of Control panel manually:

When I tried to choose a port for the new printer I just got an empty list. Creating a new port isn't possible either:

I checked different settings in Control panel, restarted the Spool Service and checked Devices Manager but I couldn't find any solution to solve this problem. Perhaps it was caused due to changes I made in Autoruns from Sysinternals but I can't remember.

Do you have any solution for enabling adding a printer?

Thank you in advance.

Answer 1

Hi,

Thank you for posting your problem in Microsoft Q&A forum.

From Windows side, we suggest that you could try below troubleshooting steps.

1. Use the Printer Troubleshooter (Settings > Update & Security > Troubleshoot > Additional troubleshooters > Printer > Run the troubleshooter
2. Install latest windows update and update printer drivers
3. Since you have made some changes before the issue happened, you can use the recovery option to restore your computer if you have created any recovery drive or system restore point.
   https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/recovery-options-in-windows-31ce2444-7de3-818c-d626-e3b5a3024da5#bkmk_restore_from_system_restore_point

I also suggest that you could seek help from PDF24 for more assitance.
https://help.pdf24.org/en/forums/

Best regards,

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