Printers Deployed via GPO Keep Re-Appearing After GPO Removal

Recently, I migrated printers to a new print server. Some printers had been deployed via Group Policy (not preferences) and on some workstations, these printers kept re-appearing even after the GPO was updated and they were removed from the workstation. After every reboot they would re-appear. I wanted to avoid giving these users a new profile.

Applicable Products

• Windows 10

Solution

First, make sure that all policies and scripts for the old printers have been removed. If you've gotten this far, try the following.

1. Remove all incorrect printers on the workstation.

2. Open regedit and navigate to \\HKLM\Software\Wow6432Node\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Print\Providers.

3. Find all instances the print server name and delete them, including any sub-keys.

4. Restart the workstation. The printers should not re-appear.