Every printer you have ever connected to Windows leaves a driver registered in the system, even after you unplug the printer or uninstall the manufacturer's utility. Over years, the Print Management console accumulates a dozen ghost entries that can confuse Windows and waste space.

Short answer: open Print Management (printmanagement.msc), expand Print Servers > <your-PC> > Drivers, right-click each obsolete driver, and choose Remove Driver Package. Then uninstall the corresponding manufacturer utility from Settings > Apps > Installed apps.

Opening Print Management

Print Management is the admin-only console that shows every driver installed on the local print server (your PC).

  1. press Windows + R, type printmanagement.msc, press Enter
  2. in the left pane, expand Print Servers
  3. expand your PC's name
  4. click Drivers

This lists every printer driver ever registered on your system — active, disconnected, or orphaned.

Note: Print Management is not installed by default on Windows 11 Home editions. If printmanagement.msc reports "not found," use the Settings-based path below.

Removing obsolete drivers

For each driver you no longer use:

  1. right-click the driver
  2. choose Remove Driver Package… (not just Delete)
  3. confirm

Remove Driver Package also deletes the associated .inf and .sys files from the driver store — Delete only removes the registration, leaving multi-MB files behind. If Windows says "the driver is in use," first remove the printer device itself via Settings > Bluetooth & devices > Printers & scanners.

Settings-based alternative (Windows 11 Home)

  1. Settings > Bluetooth & devices > Printers & scanners
  2. click each obsolete printer > Remove
  3. open Print Server Properties at the bottom of the page > Drivers tab
  4. select each unused driver > Remove… > Remove driver and driver package

Uninstalling manufacturer utilities

After removing the driver, the vendor's companion software usually stays behind:

  1. Settings > Apps > Installed apps
  2. search for the printer brand (HP, Canon, Brother, Epson)
  3. uninstall HP Smart, Canon IJ Network Utility, Brother Control Center, and similar
  4. reboot so orphaned services stop

Typical savings from this combined cleanup: 500 MB – 2 GB across the system drive.

Better next routes

For the broader cleanup, continue with How to Free Up Space on C Drive Windows 11 Natively.

For the "my PC still feels cluttered" follow-up, read Best CCleaner Alternatives for Windows 11.