- Change the Port, to “FILE:”, and then try to delete it again. If that doesn’t work:
- Go to this registry location:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Print\Printers
and delete the ones that you want gone. Then restart the Windows service named ‘spooler’.
This service is essential for lots of things, including security in general and antivirus. If it’s missing on Vista or Windows 7, it was probably removed by an infection. A good first step is probably here:
http://kb.eset-la.com/esetkb/index?page=content&id=SOLN2861
Look for the “ESETSirefefCleaner tool”. If that doesn’t do it, try the steps here:
http://www.hageltech.com/blog/2012/02/07/base-filtering-engine-problems.html
http://mypermissions.org/ is an Android app which checks your apps, reports which apps are using what data of yours, and cleans apps from your Android device based on your choices.
The tool required below, subinacl, is not supported under Windows 7. The “Windows Repair (All in One)” from Tweaking.com:
http://www.tweaking.com/content/page/windows_repair_all_in_one.html
does either most or all of the job of the below. But the tool is still available and reportedly works:
http://www.petri.co.il/subinacl-download-deployment.htm
Original text of this article is below.
Sometimes, due to all sorts of different causes, registry entries and system files acquire problematical permissions, wherein they cannot be changed, added-to, deleted, or read deleted by anyone, including either Administrator or System. Sometimes this can result in random bits of Windows denying permissions to administrators and others. In these cases, you need to get this:
SubInAcl
This is said to be part of the Windows Resource Kit for Windows 2003, but I have found that if I install the whole 2003 reskit, it doesn’t work. Once you have installed the above, run the following commands from its install folder, or copy/paste them into a batch file and run it. There is no interaction involved, they just run. It can take an hour or more, but the results can be very good.
subinacl /subkeyreg HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT /grant=administrators=f /grant=system=f >> %temp%\subinacl_output.txt
subinacl /subkeyreg HKEY_CURRENT_USER /grant=administrators=f /grant=system=f >> %temp%\subinacl_output.txt
subinacl /subkeyreg HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE /grant=administrators=f /grant=system=f >> %temp%\subinacl_output.txt
subinacl /subkeyreg HKEY_USERS /grant=system=f >> %temp%\subinacl_output.txt
subinacl /subkeyreg HKEY_CURRENT_CONFIG /grant=system=f >> %temp%\subinacl_output.txt
subinacl /subdirectories %SystemDrive% /grant=administrators=f /grant=system=f >> %temp%\subinacl_output.txt
subinacl /subdirectories %programfiles% /grant=administrators=f /grant=system=f /grant=users=e >> %temp%\subinacl_output.txt
subinacl /subdirectories %windir% /grant=administrators=f /grant=system=f /grant=users=e >> %temp%\subinacl_output.txt
This one’s new, made by the excellent folks at Macecraft:
http://decrap.org
In non-full-auto mode, it handles startup items better than anything this writer has seen in years, and also uninstalls software quickly and thoroughly with after-the-fact cleanup.