Prevent network printers from reinstalling themselves

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Miles - 25 Apr 2006 20:46 GMT

I've deleted unwanted printers from Control Panel -> Printers and Faxes.

I've unchecked "Automatically search for network folders and printers"
in explorer files and folders advanced settings.

Yet, every time I restart the PC, the unwanted printers are back again.

How can I stop this?

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Cari (MS-MVP) - 26 Apr 2006 03:57 GMT

Did you correctly uninstall them?

http://www.coribright.com/windows/Article%20One.htm

Up to and including Step 5.

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Cari (MS-MVP)
Printing & Imaging
http://www.coribright.com/windows

> I've deleted unwanted printers from Control Panel -> Printers and Faxes.
>
[quoted text clipped - 4 lines]
>
> How can I stop this?

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Alan Morris [MSFT] - 26 Apr 2006 17:54 GMT

Are these networked printers? Were the printers originally added using a
script? Is there a logon script that adds these for you?

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Alan Morris
Windows Printing Team
Search the Microsoft Knowledge Base here:
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=fh;[ln];kbhowto

This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.

> Did you correctly uninstall them?
>
[quoted text clipped - 9 lines]
>>
>> How can I stop this?

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Miles - 26 Apr 2006 18:51 GMT

> Are these networked printers? Were the printers originally added using a
> script? Is there a logon script that adds these for you?

Yes they are network printers.

It could well be a logon script. How do I find out? Can I stop the
script from running?

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Alan Morris [MSFT] - 27 Apr 2006 18:38 GMT

You will need to ask your network administrator.

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>> Are these networked printers? Were the printers originally added using a
>> script? Is there a logon script that adds these for you?
[quoted text clipped - 3 lines]
> It could well be a logon script. How do I find out? Can I stop the
> script from running?

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Miles - 28 Apr 2006 19:35 GMT

> You will need to ask your network administrator.

:-)

If *they* were any use I wouldn't be posting here in the first place...

Anyway, I've sort of resolved my issue. I've found a quick and dirty vbs
script to run at startup, which removes the unwanted printers. There's
probably a much more elaborate way to achieve this, but this works for
me.

In case it will help anyone else, here is the script:

Option Explicit
Dim objNetwork, strUNCPrinter
strUNCPrinter = "\\[server name]\[printer name]"

Set objNetwork = CreateObject("WScript.Network") WScript.sleep 20000
objNetwork.RemovePrinterConnection strUNCPrinter

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