Safe to Delete

Windows Printer Driver Staging (C:\Windows\System32\spool\drivers)

Space: 1 GB – 10 GB+ drivers Windows
Quick Answer: The spool\drivers folder caches printer driver DLLs and print spooler staging binaries. Deleting old drivers is safe.

Bottom Line: It is safe to delete obsolete printer drivers in spool\drivers. Windows caches print driver binaries for every network printer ever connected.

What is spool\drivers?

Located at C:\Windows\System32\spool\drivers\x64 (or W32X86), Windows stores printer driver packages, color profiles, and PPD files.

How to Clean Up Printer Drivers

net stop spooler
del /f /q /s C:\Windows\System32\spool\drivers\x64\3\*
net start spooler

Discussion

Loading authentication...

Related in drivers

DriverStore FileRepository Folder (C:\Windows\System32\DriverStore\FileRepository)

DriverStore FileRepository holds copies of device drivers. Safe tools like RAPR or Pnputil clean out old, unused drivers to free up massive disk space.

Safe to Delete
Back to all files