In this weeks edition of The Weekly Geek and continuing on to part 3 of Tweaking, Speeding-up and Optimizing your computer, we are going to remove old printer drivers and software as well as unwanted and unneeded software.

In Part 2 (Tweaking, Speeding-up and Optimizing your computer: Part 2 – The Weekly Geek) we blogged about using REVO uninstaller. This week we are going to use it to remove any old printer software.

Begin by opening Revo and going under the “Uninstaller” section. Scroll down and start looking for any printer brands you used to use and don’t have anymore. You will find Epson, HP and Canon typically have 3, 4 or even 5 different entries. Following what you learned in Part 2, uninstall the printer software you no longer have. Once you think you are finished, do the same under the “Windows Apps” section.

Now let’s look for your current printer software. Do you have lots of printer software you don’t use? FAX software? Below you can see where Epson has installed two different FAX programs. If you don’t FAX from the printer / computer, uninstall them.

Once you have finished these two things, We will continue in REVO to be sure all was cleaned up.

In the top left go over to the “Tools” section and then the “Autorun Manager” button. On the main windows page you can see some of the items loading when your computer boots. You can simply deselect the checkbox and the item / software / app won’t load next time you boot. If you accidentally delete something that you needed to auto-load, it is still there. Just go back and reselect it.

In all my experience with REVO and using the Advanced removal, there should be no leftover printer stuff loading.

In my example you can see the HP Print Scan Doctor Service is still there, However I had not deleted it from the Uninstall area. By simply deselecting it, the program is still on my computer for when I need it but not eating resources like Memory or Processor time until it is started by me.

While you are in this window, if you don’t use programs like Dropbox OneDrive or Google Drive but did at one point or they self-installed, you can deselect them here.

Microsoft’s Edge Auto Launch is notorious for magically reappearing here over and over.

For now, let’s exit Revo Uninstaller and restart your computer.

Upon restart, let’s see what old printers are still in your computer.

Click on the Windows Start button in the lower left of the screen and start typing “Printer”.

Depending on your version of Windows you should get the ability to select ‘Printers & Scanners’ or ‘Printers and Devices’.

Click on that and the list of printers in your system should appear. Those that are light grey (faded) are printers that your computer no longer sees. They could be turned off, have an issue or are no longer in use. If you see old printers that you don’t have, it’s time to remove them.

Below the Canon is lighter than the others.

Below the Epson is still a wanted printer but is turned off so it too is greyed out. We don’t want to remove it.

To remove the old printer and keep Windows from searching for it and using up resources, right-click on the printer and select ‘Remove Device’.

Then confirm by selecting “yes” on the popup.

There is one final place to check and be sure any old printers are truly gone. Rarely but sometimes I have found them still hanging out under the Device Manager.

To get where you need to be, right-click on the Windows icon in the lower left of your screen and select “Device Manager”. Scroll to “Printers” and “Print Queues” and expand them to see if the printer is still listed if so, right-click on the printer and select “Uninstall Device”.

With all that, you have just freed up some of your computer’s resources and not only sped up your computer a little but your network too.

Until we meet again, have a virus free week.