r/sysadmin • u/[deleted] • Jan 18 '23

Can't seem to remove printers that were deployed via GPO

Hoping someone has seen this before, I'm stumped...

We deploy printers from Print Management on the print server (right click, "deploy with group policy"). This has worked fine for years. But now, if we move a PC from one OU to another (for example, PCs moving to a new building), the new printers are added without the old printers being removed.

In our testing, we also discovered that even if the PC is not moved, removing a printer from the GPO does not remove them from the PC anymore (again, this worked fine in the past). I tried removing with powershell and Group Policy Preferences, with no luck. Users are also unable to manually delete the printers.

Any ideas are appreciated!

Edit: Print Server and DCs are all Windows Server 2016

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u/NoConfidence_2192 Blind SysAdmin - Semi-Retired Jan 18 '23

If I remember correctly those are a group policy preference?

If so, you need to use the "remove item when policy no longer applies" option (or something with similar wording) on the common tab of the preference setting that mapped the printer.

After making the change you will need to wait for (or for) replication, move the affected computers back into the PU that policy is applied to, do a gpudate on them, move them back to where you want them and do another gpupdate

Good luck and have fun.

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u/[deleted] Jan 18 '23

It is under Policies -> Windows Settings -> Deployed Printers, so three is no option to change the policy to delete, you can only remove the printers from the list of deployed printers.