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Thursday, February 24, 2011

Remove or Delete WSD Ports from Windows 2008

Heres a quick post about WSD ports in Microsoft Windows Server 2008.

Normally when you want to delete a printer port you must disconnect any printer using that port before you can delete it. Also deleteing the printer doesn't delete the port attached to it.

However if you try to delete a WSD port you get an error. I found several posts saying you couldn't delete them however the solution was very simple. WSD ports can be deleted by deleteing the printer that is attached to the WSD port.

If you have a WSD port you want to delete just create a Temp Printer that uses that WSD port and then Delete that Temp Printer.

It's counterintuitive to the norm but very workable.

Links
http://blogs.technet.com/b/askperf/archive/2008/02/11/ws2008-the-wsd-port-monitor.aspx

15 comments:

  1. Thanx much for this post! It really helped us clean up the ports on our Print Server. :)

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  2. You've provided a very simple yet very factual information about the error in WSD ports. I will surely include this in my list so that I'll know what to do in case I'll encounter the same problem.

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  3. This would leave your computer unable to run more than a handful of programs at any one time--and even those would run slowly.

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  4. Hi there, I have a query on WSD printers. Is there any API through which I can get the IP address of the WSD device from the client application?

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  5. very clever thank you, a great workaround resolution!

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  6. worked great - thank you!!

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  7. I did not have luck.
    I created a new printer using the WSD port.
    I delete the new printer and the WSD port is still listed.
    A right click on the port to configure gives this error: The selected port cannot be configured. This operation is not supported.
    A right click on the port to delete it gives this error: The selected port cannot be deleted. The requested resource is in use.
    All of the printers on this network use Standard TCP/IP Port
    I have also tried Manage Ports, Delete Port on the WSD but get an error that Selected port cannot be deleted. The request is not supported.
    I tried creating a new printer with an HP and a Cannon driver using the WSD port - neither would delete the port when the printer was deleted.
    Has anyone else had this issue? Windows 2008 R2
    Thank you

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I have the same issue, we had several WSD ports in our 2008 r2 port list, I found that all of the printers associated with the ports were no longer installed, so I deleted them and I was allowed to delete all but one wsd port, tried this method, no luck...
      Bill@digitheads.org

      Delete
  8. Thanks, this helped also.

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  9. I'm using Server 2008 R2 Standard SP1 and this worked for me. Thank you so much! I was driving myself crazy with this. Tried deleting registry keys and stuff. nothing else worked. Thank you again.

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  10. *laugh* I love when it's the simple answer that solves the problem. My printer was in a deleting status, but hadn't cleared itself out (and oddly took about 10 minutes to work itself out). Sure enough, once it was gone, the WDS port was too. Thanks!

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  11. complex problem, simple solution, thank you.

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  12. This doesn't work in windows 10.

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  13. "just create a Temp Printer that uses that WSD port"

    really ? this is the heart of the whole task. why don't you be different from everyone else telling us this is the process, while not explaining how to do it

    ReplyDelete

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