Rogue HP Printer driver -- cannot get rid of it.

jimbo45 · 13 May 2017

Hi there

just cannot get rid of an HP printer on W10 CU update.

Did the standard things - removed via Devices and printers, removed drivers via print server (on the devices and printers) , stopped the spool and deleted entries from printers file on spool and also removed entry from registry.

Printer is STILL there after next re-boot so where else is it hiding !!!!!! - any ideas. (BTW Of course I've disconnected the hardware !!!!).

Cheers
jimbo

WOT · 13 May 2017

Hi Jimbo,

That old HP printer may be recovering from DriveStore.

You can access it manually and delete that old driver (if present):
http://www.faceofit.com/where-does-w...evice-drivers/

Or, you can download this portable utility to look for it and delete it as well:
https://github.com/lostindark/Driver...ses/tag/v0.8.3
(click run as admin after starting to enable deletions)

Here's a screenshot for your edification:

Rogue HP Printer driver -- cannot get rid of it.-screenshot-2-.png

Good luck,

WOT

jimbo45 · 14 May 2017

Hi there

@WOT

Eventually I found the solution --Bonkers one I admit but it was the trick.

On a VM I needed to DELETE Printer from the VM hardware config -- otherwise the VM would re-connect the printer back into the VM -- not sure how or why but because you can dynamically add / remove (i.e connect / disconnect) hardware from a VM who knows how it interacts with Windows !!!

Rogue HP Printer driver -- cannot get rid of it.-snapshot14.png

So after deleting the printer with regedit etc and then removing / deleting the printer from the VM configuration - at next boot system was fine. !!! -- Remove printer BEFORE re-powering on the VM though.

(This was running W10 VM under VMWARE Workstation) --probably the same on vmware player.

Cheers
jimbo