Removing connections to network printers that no longer exist

Posted by Jeff Hardy on Server Fault See other posts from Server Fault or by Jeff Hardy
Published on 2009-10-25T20:44:55Z Indexed on 2010/03/30 1:53 UTC
Read the original article Hit count: 520

Filed under:

windows-server-2003

|

network-printer

I'm trying to delete some network printer connections from a Windows Server 2003 (SP2) machine because the printer shares no longer exist. Windows shows the printers' status as "Printer not found on server, unable to connect"; this is expected; the printers are now on a different server. Only one machine ever connected to the printer shares; it no longer needs to and I'd like to clean it up.

However, when I try to delete the connections, I get an error message:

---------------------------
Remove Printer
---------------------------
Printer connection cannot be removed. Operation could not be completed.
---------------------------
OK   
---------------------------

The "solutions" I've found online seem to be more voodoo than anything (and they still don't work!). Does anybody know how I can delete these long-gone printers?

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