DeletePrinterDriverEx function

Article
01/07/2021

The DeletePrinterDriverEx function removes the specified printer-driver name from the list of names of supported drivers on a server and deletes the files associated with the driver. This function can also delete specific versions of the driver.

Syntax

BOOL DeletePrinterDriverEx(
  _In_ LPTSTR pName,
  _In_ LPTSTR pEnvironment,
  _In_ LPTSTR pDriverName,
  _In_ DWORD  dwDeleteFlag,
  _In_ DWORD  dwVersionFlag
);

Parameters

pName [in]

A pointer to a null-terminated string that specifies the name of the server from which the driver is to be deleted. If this parameter is NULL, the function deletes the printer-driver from the local computer.

pEnvironment [in]

A pointer to a null-terminated string that specifies the environment from which the driver is to be deleted (for example, Windows NT x86, Windows IA64, or Windows x64). If this parameter is NULL, the driver name is deleted from the current environment of the calling application and client computer (not of the destination application and print server).

pDriverName [in]

A pointer to a null-terminated string specifying the name of the driver to delete.

dwDeleteFlag [in]

The options for deleting files and versions of the driver. This parameter can be one or more of the following values.

Value	Meaning
DPD_DELETE_SPECIFIC_VERSION	Deletes the version specified in dwVersionFlag. This does not ensure that the driver will be removed from the list of supported drivers for the server.
DPD_DELETE_UNUSED_FILES	Removes any unused driver files.
DPD_DELETE_ALL_FILES	Deletes the driver only if all its associated files can be removed. The delete operation fails if any of the driver's files are being used by some other installed driver.

If DPD_DELETE_SPECIFIC_VERSION is not specified, the function deletes all versions of the driver if none of them is in use. If neither DPD_DELETE_UNUSED_FILES nor DPD_DELETE_ALL_FILES is specified, the function does not delete driver files.

dwVersionFlag [in]

The version of the driver to be deleted. This parameter can be 0, 1, 2 or 3. This parameter is used only if dwDeleteFlag includes the DPD_DELETE_SPECIFIC_VERSION flag.

Return value

If the function succeeds, the return value is a nonzero value.

If the function fails, the return value is zero.

Remarks

Note

This is a blocking or synchronous function and might not return immediately. How quickly this function returns depends on run-time factors such as network status, print server configuration, and printer driver implementation factors that are difficult to predict when writing an application. Calling this function from a thread that manages interaction with the user interface could make the application appear to be unresponsive.

Before the function deletes the driver files, it calls the driver's DrvDriverEvent function, allowing the driver to remove any private files that are not used. For more information about DrvDriverEvent, see the Microsoft Windows Driver Development Kit (DDK).

If the driver files are currently loaded, the function moves them to a temp directory and marks them for deletion on restart.

Before calling DeletePrinterDriverEx, you must delete all printer objects that use the printer driver.

Requirements

Requirement	Value
Minimum supported client	Windows 2000 Professional [desktop apps only]
Minimum supported server	Windows 2000 Server [desktop apps only]
Header	Winspool.h (include Windows.h)
Library	Winspool.lib
DLL	Winspool.drv
Unicode and ANSI names	DeletePrinterDriverExW (Unicode) and DeletePrinterDriverExA (ANSI)