{"id":3084,"date":"2013-08-08T00:01:00","date_gmt":"2013-08-08T00:01:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.technet.microsoft.com\/heyscriptingguy\/2013\/08\/08\/use-powershell-in-windows-8-to-remove-printers\/"},"modified":"2013-08-08T00:01:00","modified_gmt":"2013-08-08T00:01:00","slug":"use-powershell-in-windows-8-to-remove-printers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/devblogs.microsoft.com\/scripting\/use-powershell-in-windows-8-to-remove-printers\/","title":{"rendered":"Use PowerShell in Windows 8 to Remove Printers"},"content":{"rendered":"

Summary<\/strong>: Microsoft Scripting Guy, Ed Wilson, talks about using Windows PowerShell 3.0 in Windows 8 to remove printers.<\/span><\/p>\n

Microsoft Scripting Guy, Ed Wilson, is here. The Scripting Wife and I have been talking to various people from the Charlotte Windows PowerShell User Group all week about doing another Windows PowerShell Saturday. It is an awful lot of work, but I think we are going to do this again. The Windows PowerShell Saturday in Charlotte sold out within a few days, and there have been many positive comments about the event. That means that people found it to be a valuable experience. So we will have another Windows PowerShell Saturday. (By the way, if you want to have one where you live, let us know via scripter@microsoft.com<\/a>.)<\/p>\n

To remove a printer with Windows PowerShell, I use the Remove-Printer<\/strong> function from the PrinterManagement<\/strong> module. There are two ways to use the Remove-Printer<\/strong> function:<\/p>\n

Remove-Printer [-Name] <String> [-AsJob [<SwitchParameter>]] [-CimSession<\/p>\n

<CimSession>] [-ComputerName <String>] [-PassThru [<SwitchParameter>]]<\/p>\n

[-ThrottleLimit <Int32>] [-Confirm [<SwitchParameter>]] [-WhatIf<\/p>\n

[<SwitchParameter>]] [<CommonParameters>]<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Remove-Printer [-AsJob [<SwitchParameter>]] [-CimSession <CimSession>]<\/p>\n

[-PassThru [<SwitchParameter>]] [-ThrottleLimit <Int32>] -InputObject<\/p>\n

<CimInstance> [-Confirm [<SwitchParameter>]] [-WhatIf [<SwitchParameter>]]<\/p>\n

[<CommonParameters>]<\/p>\n

What this means is that if I type the exact printer name, I can use the Remove-Printer<\/strong> function directly. It also tells me that I can pipe a printer object to the function. By pipelining a printer object, I can use wildcard characters.<\/p>\n

Begin with Get-Printer<\/h2>\n

I usually begin things by using a Get<\/strong> type of command. So the first thing I do is use the Get-Printer<\/strong> function to see what printers are defined. The command is shown here:<\/p>\n

Get-Printer<\/p>\n

The command and its associated output are shown here:<\/p>\n

\"Image<\/a><\/p>\n

I can use a wildcard character to avoid typing a complete printer name as shown here:<\/span><\/p>\n

PS C:\\> Get-Printer | where name -Like “my*”<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Name                           ComputerName    Type         DriverName<\/p>\n

—-                           ————    —-         ———-<\/p>\n

myotherlaser                                   Local        Brother Laser Leg Typ…<\/p>\n

Or, I can type the exact printer name and supply it directly to the –Name<\/strong> parameter as shown here:<\/p>\n

PS C:\\> Get-Printer -Name myotherlaser<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Name                           ComputerName    Type         DriverName<\/p>\n

—-                           ————    —-         ———-<\/p>\n

myotherlaser                                   Local        Brother Laser Leg Typ…<\/p>\n

Both of these commands return printer objects, and therefore, they can be piped to the Remove-Printer<\/strong> function. This is shown here:<\/p>\n

Get-Printer -Name myotherlaser | Remove-Printer<\/p>\n

Get-Printer | where name -like “my*” | Remove-Printer<\/p>\n

Remember Whatif<\/h2>\n

Of course, before I add a Remove-Printer<\/strong> object, I want to use the –Whatif<\/strong> switch to ensure that I am doing exactly what I want to do. Here is an example of a near disaster:<\/p>\n

PS C:\\> Get-Printer | where name -match “my*” | Remove-Printer -WhatIf<\/p>\n

What if: Deleting printer Microsoft XPS Document Writer<\/p>\n

What if: Deleting printer \\\\dc1.iammred.net\\HP LaserJet 2100 PCL6<\/p>\n

What if: Deleting printer myotherlaser<\/p>\n

PS C:\\><\/p>\n

Luckily, I used –Whatif<\/strong>, so I did not delete a bunch of my printers.<\/p>\n

Directly remove a printer<\/h2>\n

I can use the Remove-Printer<\/strong> function directly to remove a printer if I know the exact name. If I am unsure of the printer name, I use the Get-Printer<\/strong> function to list my printers, and I copy and paste the name. With quick edit mode turned on, I can highlight the printer name with my mouse, press ENTER to copy it to the clipboard, and then right-click to paste it. This is shown in the image that follows.<\/p>\n

\"Image<\/a><\/p>\n

Here is the command:<\/p>\n

Remove-Printer -Name myotherlaser<\/p>\n

After I have deleted the printer, I may decide to delete the printer driver and the printer port (if necessary). To do that, I use the following functions:<\/p>\n

PS C:\\> Get-PrinterDriver -Name “Brother*”<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Name                                PrinterEnvironment MajorVersion    Manufacturer<\/p>\n

—-                                —————— ————    ————<\/p>\n

Brother Laser Leg Type1 Class Dr… Windows x64        4               Brother<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

PS C:\\> Get-PrinterDriver -Name “Brother*” | Remove-PrinterDriver<\/p>\n

I use the Get-PrinterPort<\/strong> function, and I decide that I do not need to remove any printer ports.<\/p>\n

That is all there is to using Windows PowerShell to remove printers. This also concludes Printer Week. Join me tomorrow when I will talk about running scripts on remote file shares.<\/p>\n

I invite you to follow me on <\/span>Twitter<\/a> and <\/span>Facebook<\/a>. If you have any questions, send email to me at <\/span>scripter@microsoft.com<\/a>, or post your questions on the <\/span>Official Scripting Guys Forum<\/a>. See you tomorrow. Until then, peace.<\/span><\/p>\n

Ed Wilson, Microsoft Scripting Guy<\/strong> <\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Summary: Microsoft Scripting Guy, Ed Wilson, talks about using Windows PowerShell 3.0 in Windows 8 to remove printers. Microsoft Scripting Guy, Ed Wilson, is here. The Scripting Wife and I have been talking to various people from the Charlotte Windows PowerShell User Group all week about doing another Windows PowerShell Saturday. It is an awful lot […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":596,"featured_media":87096,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[445,404,3,45],"class_list":["post-3084","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-scripting","tag-client-side-printing","tag-printing","tag-scripting-guy","tag-windows-powershell"],"acf":[],"blog_post_summary":"

Summary: Microsoft Scripting Guy, Ed Wilson, talks about using Windows PowerShell 3.0 in Windows 8 to remove printers. Microsoft Scripting Guy, Ed Wilson, is here. The Scripting Wife and I have been talking to various people from the Charlotte Windows PowerShell User Group all week about doing another Windows PowerShell Saturday. It is an awful lot […]<\/p>\n","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/devblogs.microsoft.com\/scripting\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3084","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/devblogs.microsoft.com\/scripting\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/devblogs.microsoft.com\/scripting\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/devblogs.microsoft.com\/scripting\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/596"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/devblogs.microsoft.com\/scripting\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3084"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/devblogs.microsoft.com\/scripting\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3084\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/devblogs.microsoft.com\/scripting\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/87096"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/devblogs.microsoft.com\/scripting\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3084"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/devblogs.microsoft.com\/scripting\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3084"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/devblogs.microsoft.com\/scripting\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3084"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}