"Device Independent Postscript File" is one of my printers-?

[Kev Williams]

Not sure where it came from, but this shows up as a printer in every program that I can print from, AND it's first in line as the 'default printer',
488013
even though it does NOT show up in my list of "Devices and Printers",
and regardless of the fact that my "C O L O R Canon" is my ACTUAL default printer...
488003
--Not a huge problem but I already have too many printers to navigate around, and this is just a PIA I want to delete. But I can't figure out how? Google is great for explaining what it is but can't find a single word anywhere about how to DELETE IT from printer's list. I can't find it in the Services section. Or in the Device Manager. I have the programs "Autoruns", "Process Explorer" and "Shell View", but the words "device", "postscript", and "independent" are nowhere to be found in any of them. "File" does, but that's no help! ;)
--A full registry scan of "postscript" brings up this,
488020
-which doesn't seem to be of any help...

Just wondering if anyone knows how to find and delete it this 'printer' I don't need? 488021

[Steve Demuth]

A couple of questions:

What version of Windows?

Have you recently installed any new software on this system, and if so, what?

[Curt Harms]

It almost looks like some flavor of Ghostscript or something like it. Linux distros often have something similar at the top of the printer list and it wouldn't be easy to remove. If it were ghostscript or similar - I used CutePDF - you could uninstall it. Microsoft has gone from regarding open source as the devil to embracing it so they may have integrated a proprietary (of course) version.

https://www.ghostscript.com/

[Andrew More]

I'd try it and find out what it does. Guessing it's similar to "Print to PDF" printer, but for Postscript Files. Not sure what to tell you about changing it, sorry. :(

[Kev Williams]

The computer it showed up on is a Win7 64 Ultimate. Only new thing is the new Canon color printer, which is wireless so not 'this computer' specific. And the new printer is about 3 months old, it replaced a new Epson color printer that just died after about 4 months. Was easier to replace it than worry about warranty replacement. Anyway, it seemed to show up right around the time I got around to uninstalling all the Epson programs.

Had this same 'printer' show up on the office computer several years ago when I was having trouble putting my old 2005-ish Quickbooks on a newer computer. I did get it removed, but dammd if I can remember how I did it!

[Steve Demuth]

Been a while since I've been there on Windows 7. There is a command line utility in Windows, though, that allows you (generally) to track down printer drivers and settings that are garbled through ui. Open a command window and try "printui /s /t2". This should get you a dialogue that shows all the printer drivers Windows thinks it knows about. You should be able to delete the printer entry from there. If not, the properties dialogue will show you the files that constitute the print server, which you can at least explore for. I'd by wary of directly deleting them on an out of support machine, but that's up to you.

[Kev Williams]

Did what you suggested, found 2 printers in there that haven't shown up for awhile, the Soda PDF thing, and the XPS Document Writer or whatever it's called. I deleted those, and they're off the list now...

But what's NOT on that list, and is STILL in my printers list:
488484

Call me Mr. Lucky I guess ;)

[Steve Demuth]

You can try to delete the printer directly using printui:

printui.exe /dl /n “YOUR-PRINTER-NAME”

This is not an entirely risk free approach. If the printer is there due to something being garbled in the registry, then this could in some circumstances make things more garbled. And, if that's the case, it might not work, of course. So, I wouldn't do this without a trusted backup in hand.

[Kev Williams]

I tried, got this-- (I also tried using without the quotes, same same)
488603

[Steve Demuth]

I'm going to go out on a limb and say that "printer" is going to be part of your life for as long as you keep that machine. Sorry.

Does the printer actually work? That is, if you choose it, does it generate a file? Just curious - I am out of ideas for how to change things.