Solved remove uninstalled printer from the drop-down dialogue

A Brother printer has been uninstalled and no longer appears as a device.

However, it still appears in drop-down dialogues when printing a document from an application, say MS Word.

Please make it stop.

Sounds like it didn't completely uninstall. One of these suggestions should work, especially the registry. How to Completely Remove Old Printers in Windows 10 or 11

Thank you @glasskuter

I tried that (as admin) and received this error;

***************************************************
The following package(s) can not be deleted:

brprmb0a.inf (x64)
This package contains the following driver(s) that are in use:
Brother MFC-7360N Printer; This driver is used on:
Brother MFC-7360N Printer

The following driver(s) can not be deleted:

Driver Brother MFC-7360N Printer (x64) is in use. It is used on:
Brother MFC-7360N Printer
*****************************************************

So, evidently the printer removal itself failed somewhere, even though it is not listed under device manager.

I followed the suggestions on printer removal via regedit. There were no printer keys under KEY_CURRENT_USER. I removed the key under HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM. I was still unable to remove the drivers.

Maybe being used by Print to PDF or some other function?

I would suggest as an option, reinstalling the Brother Software and using the removal tool on this page?

You could try temporarily disabling Print To PDF (if that is even the problem) then removing the driver, then reenabling Print To PDF

Is it showing in settings>bluetooth & devices>printers & scanners? I would guess not if you removed the registry entry but that is the place you should have gone to properly uninstall a printer. If you have Brother software that should be removed as well, prefereably using an uninstaller like Revo Uninstaller that can remove all leftover files and registry entries. Brother software is notorious for not uninstalling compuletely using the regular Windows uninstaller.
Drivers can be force removed using DriverStoreExplorer. It is a standalone app and must be run as admin. Be VERY careful using DriverStoreExplorer.

No, it has long been gone from settings>bluetooth & devices>printers & scanners, and from Device manager.

Using DriverStore I was able to identify old Brother drivers (from 2009, 2013 and 2020) but not able to Force Delete any of them (error reported). They are nothing if not tenacious.

Getting to be that the cure is worse than the disease. The old Brother printer did not play well in our current office environment, but the new one is flawless in every execution - the easiest play and play integration ever - so I am wary of trying to uninstall every instance of Brother in my system for fear of jeopardizing what actually works.

WISE Program Uninstaller does not identify any Brother software prior to the current installation of just a few weeks ago.

kiwiaz said:

I am wary of trying to uninstall every instance of Brother in my system for fear of jeopardizing what actually works.

Click to expand...

I can surely understand that. I would be hesitant as well especially in a business environment.

It may be a ghost printer. Try this.

First open services. Restart Print Spooler (this will empty all queue) Restart the computer and see if the old printer still shows up in Word.
Sometime documents in queue can cause stuff like this,

If it does, Open device manager. Select View at the top. Click Show Hidden devices. See if it shows up as a ghost printer. It will appear lighter than your installed printer indicating its not actually there.. If it does, right click it and uninstall. If given the box to remove drivers, be sure and check it. Then restart.

If that idea doesn't pan out, the only way I would know to delete the old drivers is to use one of the Linux distros on usb drive. You can turn secure boot off in bios temporarily, boot from the usb drive and run the distro directly off the usb. You could then delete any drivers in Windows. I keep a Linux Mint distro on usb for stuff like this. You would need to make note of all the old drivers DriverStore Explorer found.

Just be sure to verify none that you delete are being used by the other Brother that you actually have installed.
You can see for sure what drivers your working printer uses by going to device manager>right click on your working printer>select properties>driver tab>driver details

If you want to try the Linux route, report back and I'll point you where to go to get Mint and how to make a bootable drive.

I would certainly make an image of the system before jumping off into this.

If it still shows up in Word after deleting drivers, IMO it would point to the registry....somewhere. Where, I do not know. You would have to search the registry using the model of the printer exactly as it appears as a print option.

Another thought. Are there perhaps any hidden or scheduled tasks related to "Brother" or its drivers?

I restarted the print spooler in services. Since I had removed a key from the registry, I also ran Wise Registry Cleaner. I am still unable to remove the drivers with Driver Store Explorer but ... the old printer no longer appears in drop down menus!

Calling that a win! Thanks everyone for your thoughtful perseverance.

kiwiaz said:

I am still unable to remove the drivers with Driver Store Explorer

Click to expand...

Good that you got to a workable solution. I wouldn't worry about the old drivers floating around in driver store. It's fairly common when one uninstalls a piece of hardware that old drivers will remain. It's also common that old drivers get left behind when one updates a driver because so many third party driver updates do not include code for removing the old stuff first.