This article will show you how to create a printer shortcut in Windows 11. Although you cannot add it to the toolbar like in Windows 10, we will show you another way to achieve a very similar result.
Notes: To create a shortcut for a printer, you need to add the printer to Windows 11 by installing the drivers. If you don’t have a hardware printer, you can create a printer shortcut for any virtual printer like Microsoft Print to PDF.
How do I create a shortcut for my printer in Windows 11?
You can place a printer shortcut anywhere on a Windows 11 PC. Selecting the shortcut will open the printer queue and allow you to monitor any print job in progress. Here are two methods you can use.
Create a shortcut from the control panel
Windows 11 (and Windows 10) Consolidated Printers under Settings. But you can still access the old printer applets from the Control Panel and open Printer Preferences or Printer Settings for your chosen printer.
- go in to start up.
- To research sign setup and select the first result.
- To select hardware and sound.
- To select Devices and Printers.
- Access the list of devices under printers and select the printer for which to create the desktop shortcut.
- Right click on the printer icon and select To create a shortcut.
- Windows displays a prompt and offers to create the desktop printer shortcut. To select And it is.
- The shortcut is now visible on the Windows desktop.
Create a shortcut from the desktop
The above steps are simple. But as an exercise, you can create a printer shortcut from the desktop itself. Start by following the steps above to write down the exact name of the printer you want to use. Then follow the next steps.
- Right-click on any empty area of the desktop.
- To select New > Shortcut.
- In the Create Shortcut wizard, enter the following path for the location of the printer (replace “Printer name” with the actual name of your printer):
rundll32.exe printui.dll,PrintUIEntry /o /n “Printer Name”
- To select following.
- Give a name to the shortcut and select to end to place the printer shortcut on the desktop.
You can change the shortcut icon. Right-click on the icon > Properties > Change icon. The default printer DLL will not have its own icons, so Windows will suggest that you select one from the SHELL32.dll icon folder.
How can I get the printer icon on my toolbar in Windows 11?
The Windows 11 taskbar is not as customizable as the Windows 10 one, and so far you cannot pin the printer icon to the Windows 11 taskbar.
You can pin any open app, file, folder, website, and even a drive to the taskbar. But pinning a device or printer icon is still not possible thanks to a workaround.
As mentioned above, the best thing to do is to create desktop shortcuts for your printers. Then put them all in a folder and pin it to the taskbar as a folderquick access.
If you have any questions or suggestions, let us know in the comments. Also consult this guide if you want to learn how to set default printer in Windows 11.
