Can't delete Group Policy deployed printers

Question

We have deployed printers from our Windows print server using Group Policy (Per-User GPO):

When we choose "Remove" in the Window above, we receive a message that removal was successful, and we no longer see the deployed printer listed in the GPO. However, the printer is not being removed from the client workstations as expected.

When we try to use Group Policy Preferences to delete the printer, we receive an "Access Denied" error on the workstation:

Based on that screenshot, it looks like the the user account is "SYSTEM", is that right? Why would SYSTEM account be denied access to delete a printer?

Some other odd behavior:

• If user is a member of Administrators group on the PC, they cannot delete the printer and receive a message that a policy is preventing it.
• Only the local administrator account is able to manually delete the printer. However next time the user logs in, the printer is back
• The printer is not shown when running Get-Printer in powershell, using elevated or non-elevated rights (but the printer is still listed in Devices and Printers)

Any thoughts on what could be stopping us from deleting these printers?

Answer 1

Hello @Shaunm001

How about a domain admin account on workstation?

You might try remove from the local PC Registry (local admin):

• HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Printers\Connections
• Remove the regkey which is called as the printer you want to remove.
• restart the Print Spooler.
• Refresh the Devices and Printers

Best Regards
Karlie

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Answer 2

Reviving an old thread, but what the heck...

I have found that printers deployed via Group Policy Printer Deployment persist on workstations now and forever, now that GPPD is broken by the PrintNightmare patches. The printers are not in GPPD anymore. Haven't been for a long time. But they're still enumerated in Printers & Scanners.

If you issue the PS command Get-Printer, it doesn't even list them. We've replaced 2 print servers since 4Q21 and can't get rid of the zombie printers. I'm guessing re-imaging the computers would do it, but that's pretty Draconian.

If anyone knows a surgical way of getting rid of them, please advise. (Karlie's answer is incorrect, BTW.)

I'll post a new thread shortly.

Answer 3

I've been dealing with zombie printer installs from dead print servers for years now. My solution is a bit inelegant, but it works. (I wouldn't be shocked to learn there is a better way to do this, but I've never come across one.)

First, uninstall all the printers that you are able to uninstall.

Next, in RegEdit go to to:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Print\Environments

From there, expand the value for the appropriate Windows environment for the machine you are on. (Most likely you'll be going to "Windows x64".)

Expand "Drivers" and expand both "Version-3" and "Version-4".

Delete the entire folder for the driver that zombie printer(s) of yours would use. (As always, it's smart to get a registry backup before you start deleting stuff.)

If your zombie printer uses something other than the winprint Print Processor, (for example, Xerox has its own print processor that often gets installed), then also go to:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Print\Environments[your_environment]\Print Processors

and delete that print processor folder.

Give your computer a restart, and the zombie printers will be gone.

Now you can reinstall all your current printers.