I'd physically gotten rid of an old printer, but I couldn't delete it from my Windows 7 computer; no matter how many times I tried, it just wouldn't go away.
If you're having a similar problem, here's how I cleared it up.
There was a document in the queue that I'd cancelled, but it wouldn't drop. That was holding the printer. I needed to force the print spool to release the document, so the system would drop the printer. A command file would do the trick. Here's what to do:
Open notepad and paste in these 4 lines
net stop spooler
del %systemroot%\system32\spool\printers\*.shd
del %systemroot%\system32\spool\printers\*.spl
net start spooler
Save the document as deletePrinter.cmd
Right-click the file you just created and select 'Run as administrator'
You may need to restart your computer afterwards, but that will delete any print jobs and the printer should be gone.
