The Ghost Printers
Windows 11 tries to be as helpful as possible when managing peripherals on a local network. If you connect to an office Wi-Fi or a public network that has shared printers available, Windows will often detect them via WSD (Web Services for Devices) or UPnP and automatically install them. While this is convenient for quick printing, it becomes a major annoyance when you disconnect from that network. Windows often saves these printer profiles and attempts to automatically reconnect to them every time you boot up, leading to a cluttered “Printers & scanners” menu filled with offline devices you no longer need, and occasionally causing the print spooler to hang while searching for unavailable hardware.
Disabling Automatic Network Printer Discovery
To stop Windows 11 from automatically finding and reconnecting to network printers, you need to disable the automated network discovery feature for file and printer sharing.
Open the Control Panel (you can find it by searching in the Start menu). Change the view in the top-right corner to “Large icons,” then click on Network and Sharing Center. On the left-hand sidebar, click the link for Change advanced sharing settings. This will open the Windows 11 Settings app to the “Advanced network settings” page. Expand the section for your current network profile (usually labeled Private if you are at home, or Public if you are on a guest network). Under the “Network discovery” section, you will see a toggle for File and printer sharing. Turn this toggle switch to the Off position. By disabling this, Windows will immediately stop actively scanning the local network for new printers and will no longer attempt to automatically reconnect to previously discovered, unmapped printers, keeping your device list clean.