FIX: The specified printer driver is currently in use by Bas Wijdenes

“Unable to remove print driver.”  the basics.

My canon printer was not functioning properly anymore. I tried to remove the printer by right-clicking and select remove. During the removal I received the following error message:

“Print Server Properties”

“Unable to remove Print driver. The specified printer driver is currently in use.”

You get this error message because the printer keeps the print spooler service busy. So even if you cannot print, you cannot delete the printer. A re-start could be the solution, but if you’ve already tried that, you can try the tutorial. The tutorial includes screenshots.

'Unable to remove Print driver. The specified printer driver is currently in use.'
‘Unable to remove Print driver. The specified printer driver is currently in use.’

Let’s fix “The specified printer driver is currently in use”.

Go to start and search for Services.msc.
Or press CTRL + R and type in Services.msc.

'Unable to remove Print driver. The specified printer driver is currently in use.'
‘Unable to remove Print driver. The specified printer driver is currently in use.’

Now search for the Print Spooler Service.
You can also sort it by name and type in ‘Print’.

Stop the Service.

'Unable to remove Print driver. The specified printer driver is currently in use.'
‘Unable to remove Print driver. The specified printer driver is currently in use.’

Go to start and type in printmanagement.msc.
Or press CTRL + R again and type in printmanagement.msc.

'Unable to remove Print driver. The specified printer driver is currently in use.'
‘Unable to remove Print driver. The specified printer driver is currently in use.’

2. Choose the printer driver you like to delete, but do not click ‘delete’ yet. Go to step 3.

Go to Custom Filters and open the All Drivers tab.
Select the printer driver that’s faulty.
Right click the driver and select Delete.

'Unable to remove Print driver. The specified printer driver is currently in use.'
‘Unable to remove Print driver. The specified printer driver is currently in use.’

Now go back to the Services.msc application and re-start the Print Spooler Service.


Another solution to the problem.

Because several users had indicated that the problem was still playing, I went researched further. In my search I found a technet post from Luka. I have not made any screenshots of this, but I did extend the steps a bit.

See the solution below:

  1. First go to Devices and Printers and remove the printer.
  2. Now stop the print spooler service.
  3. Open regedit and go to the following key:
    HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Print\Environments\Windows x64\Print Processors\
  4. Re-name all Print Processors you see here, such as: Winprint to Winprint.old, Hpcpp107 to Hpcpp107.old, and so on …
  5. Now go back to Services and start the Print Spooler.
  6. Now go to Printmanagement.msc and remove the full printer driver package.
  7. Now open the registry again and go again to the following key:
    HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Print\Environments\Windows x64\Print Processors\
  8. Now rename all Print Processors to OLD.
  9. Now go to Services and restart the Print Spooler.
  10. Reinstall the new drivers and test again.

Thanks Luka!


A third solution to your problem..(Not tested).

A third solution has arrived from a user in the comments:

  1. Open Print Management (Run: Windows Key +R “printmanagement.msc”)
  2. In “View” tab” Select “Custom View” and tick “Console tree” and “Action pane”>” OK” (This Custom View is not mandatory)
  3. Within “All Drivers,” navigate to your printer driver (the one to be deleted): (Print Management > Custom Filters > All Drivers)
  4. Right click your printer (in “Driver Name” column) – [Alternatively, in “Actions” column select your printer and select “More Actions”]
  5. From the “Driver Isolation” drop-down menu, select “Isolated.”
  6. Within “All Printers,” navigate to your printer (the one to be deleted): (Print Management > Custom Filters > All Printers)
  7. Right click your printer (in “Printer Name” column) – [Alternatively, in “Actions” column select your printer and select “More Actions”]
  8. Select “Properties” (or “Manage Sharing”)
  9. 9. In “Sharing” tab, de-select “Share this printer.” Select “Apply” (Then patiently wait for it to “apply”)
  10. In “Advanced” tab, select “Print directly to the printer.” Select “Apply.” (Then patiently wait for it to “apply”) [This disables spooling (for this printer), so you can leave the “Print spooler” (“Spooler” in Task Manager) service still running].
  11. Within “All Printers” right click your printer and perform “Delete.”
  12. Within “All Drivers,” right click your printer and perform “Delete.”

If still not fixed, also try this: In “Properties” > “Security” tab, allow “Manage this printer”


Summary

The blog post was reviewed again on 2-7-2018 and is still relevant. I made some adjustments to the screenshots because they were still in Dutch.

Because the error message is quite generic, several things can be the solution.

If you found a new one, could you indicate this below?

If you have other comments or feedback you can also indicate this in the comments.

Published by

Bas Wijdenes

My name is Bas Wijdenes and I work as a PowerShell DevOps Engineer. In my spare time I write about interesting stuff that I encounter during my work.

20 thoughts on “FIX: The specified printer driver is currently in use by Bas Wijdenes”

  1. The simple answer helped me found here
    https://support.usa.canon.com/kb/index?page=content&id=ART143708

    Unable to install or uninstall the printer driver when the message is displayed.
    Solution
    When trying to install or uninstall the printer driver the below message screen is displayed. There is no printer icon for the printer, and no pending jobs.

    This message will appear if the printer driver was deleted while there were print jobs in the print queue. Follow the process below to manually remove the jobs from the spool folder.

    1. In the Windows universal search type in [Task Manager], then click [Task Manager] in the list.

    2. Click on the [Details] tab and locate spoolsv.exe in the list.

    3. Right click on spoolsv.exe and click [End Task]. When the window below appears, click [End Process]

    4. From the desktop open [File Explorer] by clicking the folder at the bottom left.

    5. Click on the primary hard drive (C:). Then click [Windows] ? [System32] ? [Spool] ? [Printers]

    Any files showing are print jobs that did not complete.

    6. Click [Home] and choose [Select All]. Press Delete on the keyboard to delete the jobs.

    7. Reboot the computer and retry installing/uninstalling the print driver.

  2. If still not fixed, also try this: In “Properties” > “Security” tab, allow “Manage this printer”

    There’s no such choice found in Windows 10.

  3. This is complete horse crap. You cannot manipulate the drivers or printers when the spooler is stopped.

    1. … but you also get the same “in use” error when the spooler is running.

      Thank you Microsoft!

  4. Try this:

    Restart-Service Spooler
    RUNDLL32.EXE PRINTUI.DLL,PrintUIEntry /dd /m “Brother DCP-7065DN Printer” /h “x64” /v “Type 3 – User Mode”

  5. Thanks dude, step 2 worked for me on a Windows 10 machine.

    Only thing I did differently was when I got to step 8, no processors had been regenerated so I removed the .OLD from the winprint.OLD I changed earlier and it looks like it’s worked for me (I’m 1000km away from the printer so I’m waiting for the user to get back to me)

  6. Hello
    I wastry with the second solution and it works, I was able to remove the driver, but now the printer and device it open slowly and I can’t add new printers even using the printer installation software.

  7. Did not work. All future attempts to add printers resulted in the system hanging on “Finishing the installation” from the print server. Successive reboots also did not work. Ended up rebuilding the cloned machine. There is no shortcut at all when subsystems in Windows PC’s are busted – you MUST rebuild it no matter how hard you try to fix the issue.

  8. Um, when the print spooler is stopped, there are no drivers displayed. How do you select a driver after stopping print spooler?

  9. Now open the registry again and go again to the following key:
    HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Print\Environments\Windows x64\Print Processors\
    Now rename all Print Processors to OLD.

    That’s Helped me!!!!
    Thank you very much!
    I had a big headache before that solution at my big company.

  10. This is driving me nuts. When I stop the Print Spooler, all the drivers disappear from every single list, so I can’t delete any drivers because I can’t see any. My list of printer drivers is blank. When I restart the Printer Spooler service, the drivers appear again but can’t be deleted because they are “in use”.

  11. Thanks you very much Luka, your’s worked out best for me. You just relieved me from the stress of a week i have been going through.

  12. Problem uninstalling print driver (Windows 10)
    Error: Fail to Remove Printer Driver in Use
    Windows 10
    This problem is an issue only when the regular method of re-installing a potentially corrupted printer driver fails to overwrite the corrupted drivers. The next step is to delete the printer and its driver(s). But…
    Problem:
    When trying to delete the printer and/or its driver you get the following error: “Failed to remove driver (driver name). The specified printer driver is currently in use.”
    Fix:
    How to delete printer driver:
    1. Open Print Management (Run: Windows Key +R “printmanagement.msc”)
    2. In “View” tab” Select “Custom View” and tick “Console tree” and “Action pane”>” OK” (This Custom View is not mandatory)
    3. Within “All Drivers,” navigate to your printer driver (the one to be deleted): (Print Management > Custom Filters > All Drivers)
    4. Right click your printer (in “Driver Name” column) – [Alternatively, in “Actions” column select your printer and select “More Actions”]
    5. From the “Driver Isolation” drop-down menu, select “Isolated.”
    6. Within “All Printers,” navigate to your printer (the one to be deleted): (Print Management > Custom Filters > All Printers)
    7. Right click your printer (in “Printer Name” column) – [Alternatively, in “Actions” column select your printer and select “More Actions”]
    8. Select “Properties” (or “Manage Sharing”)
    9. In “Sharing” tab, de-select “Share this printer.” Select “Apply” (Then patiently wait for it to “apply”)
    10. In “Advanced” tab, select “Print directly to the printer.” Select “Apply.” (Then patiently wait for it to “apply”) [This disables spooling (for this printer), so you can leave the “Print spooler” (“Spooler” in Task Manager) service still running].
    11. Within “All Printers” right click your printer and perform “Delete.”
    12. Within “All Drivers,” right click your printer and perform “Delete.”

    If still not fixed, also try this: In “Properties” > “Security” tab, allow “Manage this printer”

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