Effortlessly Set Your Default Printer in Windows 11 Today!

However, if you use separate printers to print separate types of documents, or your routine involves connecting to multiple printers very frequently, you may encounter the problem and annoyance of Windows automatically selecting one of the most recently used printers as the default printer.

Many times you don’t even realize that you have sent a print command to the printer and then you have to go through the process of setting up the print properties again and select the printer from the list that is currently connected to your system. Also, every now and then the print job will continue to sit in the print queue and may start printing the job as soon as you connect to that particular printer. Although the probability is less, the possibility is there.

Luckily, setting a default printer in Windows 11 is a very simple process, along with that, there are several ways in which you can achieve this that can suit everyone’s needs and preferences.

Method 1: Set the default printer from the Settings app

One of the most convenient ways to set a default printer on your system is through the Settings app on your Windows device.

To do this, first go to the Start menu and click on the Settings tile under Pinned apps to proceed. Otherwise, type Settings into the menu to search.

Then click on the “Bluetooth & Devices” tab on the left sidebar of the Settings window to continue.

On the next screen, locate and click the Printers & Scanners tile to continue.

After that, on the Printers & Scanners settings screen, scroll down and find the Let Windows manage my default printer tile under Printer settings. Then click the toggle switch on the right edge of the tile to switch it to the Off position. Now Windows won’t automatically change your default printer.

Once you have disabled automatic selection of the default printer, locate the list of printers present on the page and click on the specific printer tile that you want to set as the system default.

Then, on the printer properties page, find and click the Set as Default button to set the printer as the default printer on the system.

Method 2: Set the default printer from the control panel.

Another way to set the default printer on your Windows system is through the Control Panel. Moreover, if you are not comfortable navigating the Settings app, this method may work best for you.

To set the default printer this way, first go to the Start menu and type Control to search for it. Then click Control Panel in the search results to open it.

Alternatively, you can also open the Control Panel using the Run Command utility. To do this, press the Windows+ keys Ron your keyboard at the same time to bring up the Run Command utility. Then type in Control the text box and press Enter on your keyboard to open it.

Next, in the Control Panel window, you will need to switch to the Category view. To do this, click the drop-down menu after the View by option and select the Category option to continue.

After that, in the category view, click on the Hardware and Sound category to continue.

Then on the next screen, click on Devices and Printers to continue.

Then on the Devices and Printers screen, find the Printers section and right-click on one of the printer options that you want to set as default, this will open a context menu. Now on the menu, click on Set as Default to set a specific printer as default on your system