Fix "Driver is unavailable" Printer Error in Windows 11 and 10

Your printer shows in Windows Settings with a status of:

Driver is unavailable

Print jobs sit in the queue or fail immediately, and the printer appears greyed out or unusable. In almost every case the hardware is fine — Windows simply cannot load a working driver for it.

Why This Happens

Windows needs a driver to translate print jobs into something the printer understands. The "Driver is unavailable" status means it cannot load one. Five causes account for nearly all occurrences:

• A Windows update replaced or removed the driver. Feature updates in particular swap manufacturer drivers for generic ones, or drop drivers deemed incompatible. This is the most common trigger by a wide margin.
• The driver package is corrupt. An interrupted install, a failed update, or disk corruption leaves a driver that is registered but unloadable.
• The driver is for a different Windows version. A driver written for Windows 8 or an older Windows 10 build may not load on a current release.
• The print spooler is stuck. A jammed spooler holds references to drivers and reports them as unavailable even when they are intact.
• An architecture mismatch on a shared printer, where the print server does not host a driver matching the client's architecture.

Fix 1: Restart the Print Spooler

Free, fast, and it resolves a surprising share of cases. Open an administrative Command Prompt or PowerShell:

net stop spooler
net start spooler

If that alone does not help, clear the stuck queue as well. Stop the spooler, delete the queued jobs, then start it again:

net stop spooler
del /Q /F /S "%systemroot%\System32\spool\PRINTERS\*.*"
net start spooler

Deleting those files cancels pending print jobs — that is the intent, but re-send anything you still need afterwards.

Check the printer status in Settings → Bluetooth & devices → Printers & scanners. If it now reports ready, you are done.

Fix 2: Install the Manufacturer's Current Driver

This is the fix for the "Windows update replaced my driver" case, which is the majority of them.

1. Identify the exact model — the full string on the printer's label, not just the family name. "HP LaserJet Pro M404dn" and "M404dw" take different drivers.
2. Go to the manufacturer's own support site (HP, Canon, Epson, Brother, Lexmark) and download the driver for your exact model and current Windows version.
3. Run the installer as administrator.
4. Restart the PC — driver installs frequently do not take effect until the spooler reloads.

Download only from the manufacturer. Third-party "driver updater" utilities and driver aggregation sites are a well-known distribution channel for bundled unwanted software, and printer drivers are free from the vendor in every case.

If the manufacturer offers no driver for your Windows version, try the one for the previous release — many install and work normally.

Fix 3: Remove the Broken Driver Package

If reinstalling did not stick, the old package is probably still registered and being loaded in preference to the new one. Removing the printer icon is not the same as removing the driver, which is why this step is so often missed.

1. Remove the printer in Settings → Bluetooth & devices → Printers & scanners — select it, then Remove device.
2. Stop the spooler so the driver is no longer in use:

net stop spooler
net start spooler

3. Open Print Server Properties, which works on every Windows edition:

rundll32 printui.dll,PrintUIEntry /s /t2

4. On the Drivers tab, select the driver for your printer and click Remove, choosing Remove driver and driver package.
5. Reinstall using Fix 2.

You can do the same from PowerShell, run as administrator:

# List installed printer drivers
Get-PrinterDriver | Select-Object Name, PrinterEnvironment

# Remove a specific one
Remove-PrinterDriver -Name "HP LaserJet Pro M404-M405 PCL-6"

If removal is refused with the driver "in use", something still references it — remove the printer queue first, then retry.

On Windows 11, the graphical Print Management console is an optional feature rather than a default one. Add it under Settings → System → Optional features → Add an optional feature → Print Management Console if you prefer a UI, but the printui.dll and PowerShell routes above need nothing installed.

Fix 4: Let Windows Supply a Driver

If the manufacturer has abandoned the model, Windows can often still drive it.

1. In Printers & scanners, choose Add device, then Add manually.
2. Select Add a local printer or network printer with manual settings.
3. Choose the existing port — for a network printer, the TCP/IP port already configured.
4. On the driver list, pick a generic class driver: Generic / Text Only for basic output, or the Microsoft PCL6 Class Driver or Microsoft PS Class Driver if your printer supports PCL or PostScript (most business printers support at least one).

You lose model-specific features such as duplex presets, stapling and toner reporting, but you regain printing.

Also check Windows Update → Advanced options → Optional updates → Driver updates, which sometimes carries a working driver that is not installed by default.

Fix 5: Shared and Network Printers

If the printer is shared from another PC or a print server, two extra causes apply.

Architecture mismatch. The server must host a driver for each client architecture. On the server, open Print Server Properties (rundll32 printui.dll,PrintUIEntry /s /t2), go to Drivers, and confirm both x64 and, if you still have any, x86 drivers are present for that model.

The printer moved. A network printer that picked up a new DHCP address is no longer where Windows expects. Check reachability before touching drivers:

ping 192.168.1.50

Give network printers a DHCP reservation or a static address so this stops recurring.

If you are getting error 0x0000011b specifically when connecting to a shared printer, that is a different problem with a specific cause — see fixing Windows cannot connect to the printer 0x0000011b.

Verify the Fix

1. Confirm the status in Printers & scanners now reads Ready rather than Driver is unavailable.
2. Check the driver actually bound to the printer:

Get-Printer | Select-Object Name, DriverName, PortName, PrinterStatus

3. Print a Windows test page from the printer's properties — this exercises the whole path rather than just the status display.
4. Print from a real application, since some failures only appear with a genuine document.

Prevention

• Install manufacturer drivers before a feature update, and re-check printers afterwards. Feature updates are the leading cause of this error.
• Keep a copy of the driver installer for each printer model you support, so a fix does not depend on the vendor still hosting the download.
• Give network printers static addresses or DHCP reservations.
• Avoid driver updater utilities. They solve nothing here and frequently install unwanted software.
• On shared printers, keep drivers current on the server, since every client inherits what the server hosts.

Related Guides

• Fix "Windows cannot connect to the printer" 0x0000011b
• How to set up Microsoft Universal Print
• Fix Windows Update error 0x80070643