Windows 10 How To Set Default Printer

How To Set The Default Printer In Windows 11

Windows 10: Setting the Default Printer

The following steps will help Windows 11 users set the default printer:

Press Win + I keys to launch the Settings app.

In the Settings app, select Bluetooth & Devices from the left side.

Now, click on the Printers & Scanners tab on the right side.

On the Printers & Scanners page, you will see a list of all the printers added to your computer. Select the printer that you want to set as default and click on the Set as default button.

Windows 11 also has a feature to select the default printer automatically based on the most recently used printer at a specific location. Turning this feature on will save your time in selecting the default printer at different locations manually.

To enable this option on Windows 11, go to Settings > Bluetooth & Devices > Printers & Scanners. Scroll down on the Printers & Scanners page and turn on the button that says Let Windows manage my default printer. You will find this option in the Printer preferences section.

Do note that, after turning on this feature, you will not be able to set a printer as default manually. To do so, you have to turn off this option.

How To Set A Default Printer On Your Windows 10 Computer

To set a default printer in Windows 10, follow the steps below. Step 1: Head over to the main “Printer & scanners” settings. To get there, you can either search for it in the start menu, or take the long route of going to primary Settings first > then, Devices > Followed by Printers & scanners. One of the fastest ways to get to the printers.

How To Set The Default Printer In Windows 10

To set the default printer on your Windows 10 PC, do the following:

Then click on Set as default button to set the printer as default.

Once you do that, the printer will appear as the selected printer when you go ahead to print anything. Also, the printer will have status as Default in the printer list.

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Change The Default Printer Via The Print Dialog

Heres what you have to do:

Open Notepad and click on the File tab.

Tip: You can simply press Ctrl + P to quickly open the Print dialog after launching Notepad.

Right-click on the printer you want to make the default printer and then click on the Set as Default Printer option in the contextual menu.

You will be presented with a warning that says that Windows will stop managing your default printer if you set this printer as default. Click the OK button to proceed. Your selected printer will now be the default printer.

How To Set The Default Printer On Windows 11/10

How to Change Default Printer in Windows 10 [Tutorial]

If you have connected several printers to your computer, you can set any one of them as the default printer so that you can use that preferred printer to print most of your documents. Once you set any printer as default, all the apps will use that printer for printing by default. This gearupwindows article will guide you in setting a default printer on Windows 11 and 10.

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How To Set The Default Printer On Windows 10 Or 11

Mahesh Makvana is a freelance tech writer who specializes in writing how-to guides. He has been writing tech tutorials for over a decade now. Hes written for some of the prominent tech sites including MakeUseOf, MakeTechEasier, and Online Tech Tips. Read more…

Do you have a preferred printer that you use to print most of your documents? If so, make that printer the default so all your apps use it for printing by default. Well show you how to do that on Windows 10 and 11.

Fix Operation Could Not Be Completed Double Click The Printer Name And Make Sure That The Printer Is Connected To The Network Error

This is where things may go sideways. As we described above, sometimes a user may encounter weird issues when trying to set up the default printer in Windows 10. If nothing helped and you still cannot set up the default printer, try to use the Windows registry to bypass the nasty error.

Warning. Follow the procedure strictly and do not change other registry branches and values, otherwise you may end up with serious software problems and data loss.

Disable the Let Windows manage my default printer options in Windows settings.

Press Win + R and enter the regedit command. Press Enter. This command launches the built-in Registry Editor.

Expand the following registry key: HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Windows.

Right-click on the Windows key and select Permissions.

Select Administrators, then check the Full Control and press OK.

Next, assign Full Control permission for your user.

Close the permissions windows and go back to Registry Editor. In the right pane, find the registry parameter called Devices and change its value to the printer name you want to set as a default one. For, example if your printer has the name HP Color LaserJet 5550 PCL6 Class Driver, you need to set the value to HP Color LaserJet 5550 PCL6 Class Driver,winspool,TS001.

After saving the settings, the new printer will be marked with a green circle in the Control Panel. Also, you will see the Default string next to the printer in the Windows Settings.

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Letting Windows Manage Printers Automatically

Open up Settings, then go to Devices. Click Printers & Scanners on the right, and youll get to the same screen that was mentioned in the Using the Settings menu section. Find the checkbox for Let Windows manage my default printer and CHECK it. It is the quickest way to set default printer in Windows 10, but it only works if you want your default printer to be the last one you used in your current location.

Related :

How To Set Default Printer By Group Membership

How to Set Default Printer in Windows 10

This is useful if you have for example a laboratory or classroom with group of computers and you want to Set default printer for those computers.

Open the page.

Select the Groups tab. Only available if groups are enabled.

For the group in question:

Check Exclusive access if you want to give the users in the group exclusive access to the print queue. Does not apply to computers in the group.

Check Add print queue automatically if you want the print queue to be added automatically to the computer if the computer is a member of the group, when a user in that group signs in.

Check Set as default printer if you want the print queue to become the default printer for the users and computers in the group.

*If Set as default printer is checked for multiple print queues it will be random, which one will be set as default. Printix Client will override the users selection of default printer every time the Printix Service is started and or it receives updates to its list of printers and their configuration.

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Why Windows 11 Keeps Changing The Default Printer

There are two ways to choose the default printer in Windows 11: mark it yourself using the directions above, or have Windows always default to the last printer you used.

In both cases, you always have full control over which printer to use when it comes time to print just manually select the printer that should be used in that instance. But, if you prefer to always have a particular printer be the default one, regardless of what you used last time you printed, there’s a setting you need to change.

Go to step 3 above , and confirm Let Windows manage my default printer is disabled/off. Turning this off enables the Set as default button in step 5, and forces Windows 11 to always default to the printer of your choice.

Way : Set Default Printer Via Command Prompt

Compared with the first three ways, this way is a little bit complicated.

Step 1: Open Command Prompt as administrator.

Type Command Prompt in Cortanas search bar,
Right-click the most-matched item and then choose Run as administrator from the menu.

Step 2: On the Command Prompt window, type the following command and then hit the Enter key to run this command.

RUNDLL32 PRINTUI.DLL,PrintUIEntry /y /n Printer name

Note:

Have you tried one of these ways? It is easy to set default printer on Windows 10 by following one of them, so have a try.

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Can You Set Two Printers As Default

No, the built-in mechanism for selecting a default printer in Windows 11 allows for only one.

A printer marked as ‘default’ is simply the one your computer assumes you want to use when it’s time to print. If you have multiple printers installed, choosing one as default makes printing a little faster because you don’t have to sift through all your printers to choose the right one. Having two default printers would defeat the purpose.

How To Turn On Or Off Let Windows 10 Manage Default Printer

How to Set a Default Printer in Windows 10

How to Turn On or Off Let Windows 10 Manage Default PrinterWindows 10 build 10565let Windows manage your default printerWindows 10

If you set a printer as default, it will turn off let Windows manage your default printer.

Option One: To Turn On or Off Let Windows 10 Manage Default Printer in Settings
Option Two: To Turn On or Off Let Windows 10 Manage Default Printer using a REG File

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Set Default Printer Through Command Prompt

This option works best if you like to have precise control over your hardware settings. Open the Command Prompt, and then type in wmic printer get name,default and press Enter. Here is a list of all the printers that can be used with your PC. Look at the extreme left of each row and youll see either TRUE or FALSE the one marked TRUE is your current printer. Find the one you want to set as default and note down its name. Then type wmic printer where name=blahblahblah call setdefaultprinter and your new printer will be set.

How To Set The Default Printer From The Print Window

When you want to , you usually press CTRL+ P on your keyboard. For example, this shortcut works in any document editing app from Notepad to WordPad to Word. Then, in the Print window, you see the printers installed on your Windows computer. Right-click on the printer you want and choose Set as Default Printer.

Set the default printer from the Print window

The default printer is then changed to the one youve selected, and hitting the Print button will send the print job to it.

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Way : Set Default Printer Windows 10 Via Settings

Step 1: Click the Windows icon on the toolbar and then select Settings.

Step 2: On the Settings window, please click Devices and Printers & scanners in order.

Step 3: Look at the right pane and then untick Let Windows 10 manage your default printer.

Step 4: Scroll up to Printers & scanners. Click a printer you want to set as default and then click the Manage button.

Step 5: On the new window, please click Set as default to set the selected printer as default Windows 10.

How To Set The Default Printer From Cmd Powershell Or Windows Terminal

How To Easily Set A Default Printer In Windows 10

You can also set the default printer from the command line. First, start the app you wish in any Windows version, including the old Windows 7. If youre using Windows 11, heres how to open the Windows Terminal. Then, type the following command:

Make sure to replace the printer name part of the command with the actual name of the printer you want to set as the default. If you dont know its name, you can find it by running the command we shared in the first chapter of this guide.

The command to set the default printer in Windows

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Change Default Printer In Windows 10

On a Windows 10 computer, you can either set your own default printer or allow Windows to manage the default printer on your computer.

When you manually set a default printer on your computer, all the print jobs will always be sent automatically to your selected printer.

This setup is useful if your computer is based at a particular location and also if you have multiple printers, but prefer sending print jobs to a specific printer.

The only disadvantage of setting a default printer is that you will have to change default printer, whenever you happen to take your Home computer to office or bring your office computer to Home.

Set The Default Printer In Control Panel

Some Windows 10 users still like to use the Control Panel for managing settings and devices. If you fall into this group, follow these steps to set your default printer in Control Panel.

Open Control Panel as you usually would. You can also use the Search box to locate it quickly if you have it in your Taskbar. Just enter Control Panel into the Search box and then select it from the results.

Under Hardware and Sound, choose View devices and printers. If, for some reason, you dont see this option, click Hardware and Sound and then pick Devices and Printers.

Scroll down to Printers, right-click the printer you want to use, and pick Set as default printer.

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Set A Network Printer As The Default Printer In Powershell

A very short tutorial on how to set the default printer in Windows 10. Check out also other resources from The full tutorial on Windows 10. I’m writing a script that makes it easier for users to add a network printer. With the “listBox”, it shows all the configured printers in my printserver and by pressing my “add printer”- Button, it’ll automatically be added. Now I want to do a second button, which sets a chosen device from the list as a default printer. 3. Click Printers & scanners on the left side. 4. Toggle off âLet Windows manage my default printer.â. 5. Select the printer you want and click Manage. 6. Click “set as default.” You can.

Change The Default Printer Via The Control Panel

How to Set Default Printer in Windows 10

The Devices & Printers option can also be found in the Control Panel. Heres how to access it:

Open the Run box by pressing the Windows icon + R shortcut.

Type Control Panel into the text area and click OK or hit Enter on your keyboard.

Alternatively, you could type Control Panel into the Start menu search bar and click on the option when it appears in the search results.

Direct your attention to the View: by drop-down in the top-right corner of the Control Panel window and make sure that it is set to Small icons.

Locate Devices and Printers in the list of options and click on it.

Move to the Printers section on the new page that opens and right-click on the printer of your choice. Then click on Set as default printer in the contextual menu.

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Windows 10 Default Printer Changes Itself

If you suddenly discover your Windows 10 default printer has changed, there are several reasons. The most common is a new Windows update. There are almost always a variety of issues when new updates are released, including changing Windows settings.

Check to see if the Let Windows manage my default printer is checked. If so, uncheck it and reset your default printer.

Its also possible a Windows update changed your driver, causing the printer to not work correctly. This may cause your printer default to change when installing an updated driver from the printer manufacturer or using Manage within Printers & Scanners. Choose Hardware Properties -> Driver -> Update Driver.

A final issue may occur when you install a new printer. New printers want to be the default. The installation process, especially when using software to install, may change your default for you. If using the printer software to install, there may be an option to set the printer as your default. Check it if you want the printer to be your Windows 10 default printer and uncheck it if you dont.

Outside of the issues above, your default printer should stay set. Now, when you hit the Print button, your documents should be sent directly to your chosen printer. If you are stuck in the Print queue, here is how to clear the queue. If you have a Network Printer and have difficulty finding its IP address, we have a fix here.

Set The Default Printer On Windows 11

Like with Windows 10, on Windows 11, use the Settings app to make a printer the default.

Start by opening the Settings app using the Windows+i keyboard shortcut.

In Settings left sidebar, click Bluetooth & Devices.

On the right pane, click Printers & Scanners to view your installed printers.

Scroll down the Printers & Scanners page to the Printer Preferences section. Here, disable the Let Windows Manage My Default Printer option. If the option is already disabled, you dont have to do anything.

Scroll up the page and select the printer you want to set as the default.

On the printers page, at the top, click the Set as Default button.

And thats it. Your selected printer is now the default printer on your computer.

Going forward, all your apps will use your selected printer to print files by default. Thats one less annoyance in your digital life!

If youre using InkJet printers, you should consider the advantages of getting a laser printer.

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