Maybe this helps someone…
Occasionally in our environment someone tries to install a shared printer from the printer server and fails. The error message is something like “Operation failed with error ox00000057” as seen in the image below:
Chances are that the printer in question is differently configured compared to other printers of the same type. Check the protocol settings in the port configuration on the printer server first!
Then, as the user who got this error message, remove all installed printers of the same manufacturer.
Next, stop the spool service (on the command line is fine, issue “net stop spool”)
Remove the printer drivers, on an x64 OS usually located under C:\Windows\System32\spool\drivers\x64\3
E.g. Xerox printers usually have a folder “Xerox” there, delete it. Also delete any files starting with x2… as they are Xerox files too. When in doubt, check the file details… for details! HP printers files, of course, have different names and there might not be folder called “HP”
Some files might be reported to be in use in Explorer. Simply restart, then try deleting these files again.
Next, start regedit and navigate to “HKLM\System\CurrentControlSet\Control\Print\Environments\Windows x64\Drivers\Version 3”. If there are keys/subkeys and other entries of the manufacturer whose drivers you have to get rid off, delete them.
Then, start an elevated cmd (“elevated” being the keyword here) and enter the following followed by enter:
pnputil -e > c:\drivers.txt
This will put a file called drivers.txt in C: listing all installed .inf files. The files is easier to search than the console output. Look for the manufacturer as listed by “Driver package provider”. Each entry lists the the name of the .inf file was used to install the drivers.
Deleting the drivers from the repository is simple: pnputil -f -d <name_of_the_inf_file>.inf which will remove the inf file from the repository and the associated drivers.
Reboot and delete any remaining drivers from the spool\drivers folder.
Then reinstall the printer.