How to Set or Change Default Printer in Windows 11?

Setting or changing a default printer in Windows 11 saves you the hassle involved, but it’s especially beneficial when more than one printer is awaiting a document. The default printer is the one that you send any print jobs to automatically: the one that will do your printing for you. In this guide, we will take you through simple steps to set or change the default printer on your Windows 11 device so you can enjoy a quick and easy printing experience.

What is a Default Printer?

The default printer is the one that your computer selects to print a document, a photo, or anything else, automatically. If you have more than one printer connected to your computer, setting one as the default means that it is used only when you select other printer otherwise, it is that printer used when the print option is pressed. Printing will be easier and more convenient since most of the time, you will not be required to choose your printer while printing, as long as you don't mind using the same one most of the time.

Why change the default printer?

A default printer is the one that the computer automatically uses for printing until you request another one. Windows has a feature that can intelligently decide which one is to be marked as default according to your location. Such changes of the printer may occur depending on your current locale, which may be irritating every time if you don't want to switch printers. Thus, you may find it necessary to change your default printer settings into a static one, which allows you to pick the printer that you prefer to use as a default printer.

How to Set the Default Printer in Windows 11

You can change the default printer's settings using three different ways. Let's see how to each method one by one with proper demonstration.

Method 1: Set or Change Default Printer Using Settings

This is the simplest method to change the default printer in Windows, for this, you will have to follow the below steps.

Step 1: Open Settings

First need to go to the start menu and open the settings, then select Bluetooth & devices from the left side in the settings, after this, select Printers & Scanners.

Step 2: Turn Off Default Setting

Windows has its settings to manage and choose the default printer automatically, for choosing the default printer on our own, we will need to turn off this setting so make sure this setting is toggled as “off”.

Step 3: Set as Default

In this step, you will have to select the printer that you want to set as the default printer on your system, so choose the printer that you will want to set up as the default printer and click on the "Set as Default" button, as you can see in the image below I have selected the printer.

Method 2: Set or Change Default Printer Using Control Panel

This is another simple and easy-to-follow method that you can use to change the default printer, in this we use the control panel to change or set the default printer, so let's quickly see the steps involved in changing the default printer using the control panel

Step 1: Open Control Panel

Firstly, you will have to open the control panel, for this go to the start menu and search for “control panel” After opening the control panel move to the next step.

Step 2: Open Device and Printers Setting

Now you need to open the device and printer settings, for this, you need to go to Hardware and Sound > Devices and Printers, in case you are not able to see the first setting (hardware and sound) then it means that you are seeing the settings in list instead of category format so simply select hardware and sound in that case.

Step 3: Set Default Printer

Here you can now simply set the printer of your choice as the default printer by right-clicking and choosing "set as default printer", as you can see in the image below I have selected the printer as the default printer.

Method 3: Set or Change Default Printer Using Command Prompt

If you are a more frequent user of the command line or in case you are using safe mode, then this method is for you. This method is preferred. Simply open the command prompt to change the default printer and follow these detailed steps.

Step 1: Determine the Printer Name

The first and most important task in this method is to make sure that you know the exact name of the printer that you are going to set as the default printer, one way to know this is by going to the control panel and selecting Device and Printers to get the exact name of your printer.

Step 2: Enter the Command

After the completion of the above step, you will have to open the command prompt and then enter the following command.

Note: Replace the printer name with the name of your printer

Command : rundll32 printui.dll,PrintUIEntry /y /q /n “Printer name”

If this does not give us any error then we can say that the printer is now set to default, as you can see below:

Step 3: Confirm Default Printer (Optional)

This is an optional step to check whether the printer is set to default or not, in this you will need to go to the Device and Printers to check if the printer you have selected as the default using the command prompt is set to default or not check-mark is present then the printer is set to default.

Hence, we have successfully changed the default printer in Windows 11 using three different methods, all methods work fine and will change your default printer.

Conclusion

It is easy to manage the default printer settings in Windows 11, which will help improve your printing speed. Using the procedures written above, you can simply set or change your default printer – thus ensuring that all your print jobs go to the right printer without having to choose every time which gadget to send the job to. You can avoid confusion and make the process more efficient by updating your default printer preferences regularly.