5 Easy ways to rename a printer on Windows 11

• To rename a printer on Windows 11, open Settings > Bluetooth & devices > Printers & scanners, choose the printer, click “Printer properties,” and confirm the new name.
• On Windows 11 24H2, open Settings > Bluetooth & devices > Printers & scanners, choose the printer, click “Additional printer settings,” confirm the new name, and click “OK.”
• To complete this configuration, you can also use the Print Management console, Command Prompt, and PowerShell.
• The Control Panel method is no longer available as Microsoft ported the option to the Settings app.

On Windows 11, there are multiple ways to rename a printer. In this guide, I’ll show you five ways and the new steps starting with version 24H2.

Although you can choose your printer’s name during its setup, nowadays, printing and scanning devices install automatically with default settings, including a default name, which can sometimes be long and not humanly descriptive.

If you want to change the name to share the printer with a friendly name or make it easier to identify if you have multiple printing devices, Windows 11 includes various methods to complete this configuration from the Settings app (depending on your version of the operating system), Print Management, Command Prompt, and PowerShell.

In this guide, I will outline the different ways to assign a different name for your printer on Windows 11.

Rename your printer on Windows 11

On Windows 11, you have at least five ways to change the printer settings, including its name, and here’s how.

Ensure the printer is online before proceeding with these methods to avoid issues.

1. From Settings on version 23H2

To change the printer name on Windows 11 23H2 and older versions, use these steps:

1. Open Settings.

2. Click on Bluetooth & devices.

3. Click the Printers & scanners page.

4. Choose the printer.

   

5. Click the Printer properties setting.

   

6. Confirm the new printer name.

   

   Quick tip: The page also includes the printer’s IP and port as the options to perform a print test and access the device preferences, among other advanced settings.

7. Click the OK button.

8. Click the Apply button.

The setting to change the printer properties is no longer available through the Control Panel. If you open “Hardware and Sound” and “Devices and Printers,” you will be directed to the Settings app. However, on version 23H2, you will access the legacy properties to rename a printer.

2. From Settings on version 24H2

To rename your printer from the Settings on Windows 11 24H2, use these steps:

1. Open Settings.

2. Click on Bluetooth & devices.

3. Click the Printers & scanners page.

4. Choose the printer.

   

5. Click on Additional printer settings.

6. Click the Rename button for the “Rename your printer” setting.

   

7. Confirm the new printer name.

   

8. Click the Save button.

The “Rename your printer” setting is only available on Windows 11 24H2 and higher releases. You can check the version of your operating system with these instructions.

3. From Print Management

To assign a different name for your printer through the Print Management console, use these steps:

1. Open Start.

2. Search for Print Management and click the top result to open the app.

3. Click on All Printers from the “Custom Filters” category.

4. Right-click the printer on the right and choose the Rename option.

   

5. Confirm the new name and press Enter.

   

The console is only available on Windows 11 Pro, so you cannot use these instructions in the Home edition of the operating system.

If you can access Print Management from this console, you can also completely remove a print driver on Windows 11. 

4. From Command Prompt

To rename a printer through Command Prompt, use these steps:

1. Open Start.

2. Search for Command Prompt, right-click the top result, and choose the Run as administrator option.

3. Type the following command to list the installed printers and press Enter:

   wmic printer get location,name

   Quick tip: This command will also reveal the printer’s IP address and port.

4. Type the following command to change the printer name on Windows 11 and press Enter:

   cscript %WINDIR%\System32\Printing_Admin_Scripts\en-US\prncnfg.vbs -x -p "CURRENT-NAME" -z "NEW-NAME"

   

   In the command, update “CURRENT-NAME” and “NEW-NAME” with the old and new names. The “Prncnfg.vbs” file is actually a Visual Basic script designed to configure or display printer details, and in this case, you can use it to change the print device name.

The command will update the printer globally throughout the system.

5. From PowerShell

To change the printer name with PowerShell commands, use these steps:

1. Open Start.

2. Search for PowerShell, right-click the top result, and choose the Run as administrator option.

3. Type the following command to view the installed printers and press Enter:

   Get-Printer | Select-Object -Property Name, DriverName

   Quick note: I’m also using the “Select-Object” option to list only the information needed to identify the printer. In addition, the “Get-Printer” command can also be used to query different printer details, as shown on this Microsoft documentation page.

4. Type the following command to change the printer name on Windows 11 and press Enter:

   Rename-Printer -Name "CURRENT-NAME" -NewName "NEW-NAME"

   

   In the command, update “CURRENT-NAME” and “NEW-NAME” with the old and new names.

If you encounter problems renaming a printer, make sure you are running Command Prompt or PowerShell as an administrator.

While these instructions are specific to Windows 11, you can use the Command Prompt and PowerShell methods on Windows 10.