Use PowerShell to remove a network printer for all users

Last updated Jun 20, 2023

• Powershell
• Windows
• Printers

This brief article details the commands necessary to use PowerShell to remove a network printer for all users of a computer.

The below actions require the executing user to be an administrator of the remote workstation, or a Domain Administrator.

In an elevated PowerShell session (running as administrator), run the following command;

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Enter-PsSession -ComputerName HOSTNAME.FQDN

where HOSTNAME.FQDN is the fully-qualified domain name of the workstation in question.

Example: desktop01.yourdomain.com

You can actually perform these commands without using the FQDN, and using the short name instead.

Once you’ve entered the remote PowerShell session successfully, run the following commands in sequence;

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Get-WmiObject -Class Win32_Printer | Where-Object {$_.Name -eq ‘\\PRINTSERVER\Shared-printer‘}

where PRINTSERVER is the NETBIOS name of your print server from which the printer is shared and Shared-printer is the shared name of the printer you’d like to remove. This command will return the printer that you’d like to remove, if it is installed for the user running the command. Even if the user running the command does not have this printer installed, this process will still work as intended.

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Get-WmiObject -Class Win32_Printer | Where-Object {$_.Name -eq ‘\\PRINTSERVER\Shared-printer‘}| foreach {$_.delete()}

again, where PRINTSERVER is the NETBIOS name of your print server from which the printer is shared and Shared-printer is the shared name of the printer you’d like to remove.

When this is complete, the network printer should be uninstalled/removed for all users on that workstation. This can be verified by having users logon and check their Devices and Printers window.