So, let’s discover how you can prevent other users from deleting or adding printers to your Windows device.
How to Prevent Others From Deleting a Printer on Windows
Let’s start by checking out how you can prevent others from deleting printers on your PC.
Use the Local Group Policy Editor (LGPE)
The Local Group Policy Editor (LGPE) is a Windows feature that helps you configure various system settings. However, you can only access it if you’re using the Windows Pro, Education, and Enterprise editions.
If you’re a Windows Home user, then you should check out tips on how to enable the LGPE on Windows Home.
Now, here’s how to use the LGPE to prevent others from removing a printer on your device:
Press Win + R to open the Run command dialog box. Next, type gpedit. msc in the search box and press Enter to open the Local Group Policy Editor. Navigate to User Configuration > Administrative Templates > Control Panel > Printers. Next, double-click on the Prevent deletion of printers option on the right-hand side.
Finally, select the Enabled option to prevent others from deleting printers on your PC. From there, press Apply and then press OK.
If you want to allow others to remove printers, follow these options:
Open the LGPE and navigate to the Printers option as per the previous steps. Double-click on Prevent deletion of printers and select Not Configured or Disabled. Finally, press Apply and then press OK to save these changes.
Use the Registry Editor
The Windows Registry is another brilliant tool that makes it easy for you to configure the system settings. The only problem is that this tool is quite sensitive. So, it’s often advisable to back up the Registry first before tweaking its settings.
Now, let’s take a look at how this tool can help you prevent others from deleting printers:
Press Win + R to open the Run command dialog box. Next, type Regedit in the search box and press Enter to open the Registry Editor. Next, copy-paste the following command into the address bar and press Enter:
Next, follow these steps:
Expand the Policies key and then click Explorer. If the Explorer key is missing, right-click on the Policies key and select New > Key. From there, name the new key as “Explorer. ” Click the Explorer key, right-click on the right-hand side pane, and then select New > DWORD (32-bit) Value. From there, name the value as “NoDeletePrinter” and then press Enter.
Next, double-click on the NoDeletePrinter value. From there, set the Value data to 1 to prevent others from deleting printers on your device. Finally, close the Registry Editor and reboot your device to apply these changes.
To allow others to remove printers on your device, follow these steps:
Open the Registry Editor and navigate to the Explorer key as per the previous steps. Double-click on the NoDeletePrinter option and then set its Value data to 0 (zero). Press OK, close the Registry Editor, and then restart your device to save these changes.
But then, how did someone remove a printer from your device in the first place? Let’s take a quick look at this.
How to Prevent Others From Adding a Printer to Windows
Now, let’s check out how to prevent others from adding a printer to your PC. We’ll use both the LGPE and the Registry Editor.
Use the LGPE
Here’s how you can use the LGPE to prevent others from adding a printer to your device:
Press Win + R to open the Windows Run command dialog box. Alternatively, try the various ways to open the Run command dialog box. Next, type gpedit. msc in the search box and press Enter to open the Local Group Policy Editor. Navigate to User Configuration > Administrative Templates > Control Panel > Printers. Next, double-click on Prevent addition of printers on the right-hand side.
Select Enabled to prevent others from adding printers to your Windows device. From there, press Apply and then press OK.
If you want to allow others to add printers to your PC, follow these steps:
Open the LGPE and navigate to the Printers option using the previous steps. Double-click on Prevent addition of printers and select Not Configured or Disabled. Finally, press Apply and then press OK to save these changes.
Use the Registry Editor
Here’s how you can use the Registry Editor to prevent others from adding printers to your device:
Press Win + R to open the Run command dialog box. Next, type Regedit in the search box and press Enter to open the Registry Editor. Next, copy-paste the following command into the address bar and press Enter:
From there, follow these steps:
Expand the Policies key and then click Explorer. If the Explorer key is missing, right-click on the Policies key and select New > Key. From there, name the new key as “Explorer. ” Click the Explorer key, right-click on the right-hand side pane, and select New > DWORD (32-bit) Value. From there, name the value as “NoAddPrinter” and then press Enter.
Next, double-click on the NoAddPrinter value. From there, set the Value data to 1 to prevent others from adding printers to your device. Finally, close the Registry Editor and reboot your device to apply these changes.
If you change your mind, you can allow others to remove printers through these steps:
Open the Registry Editor and navigate to the Explorer key using the previous steps. Double-click on the NoAddPrinter option and then set its Value data to 0 (zero). Press OK, close the Registry Editor, and then restart your device to save these changes.
Now, how did someone else suddenly add a printer to your device? Let’s find out.
Prevent Others From Adding or Removing Printers on Windows, Done
Preventing others from deleting or adding printers to your device is quite easy. All you need to do is apply the methods we’ve covered, and you’ll be good to go. And if your printers aren’t working on Windows, there are solutions for that too.
