How to Create a Printer Shortcut in Windows 10

This article will explain how to add a printer shortcut to your Windows 10 taskbar.

How to Create a Printer Shortcut in Windows 10

Prior to Windows 10, any time you've connected a printer to your computer, you would see an icon in the taskbar for the printer queue. Today, with Wi-Fi printing and cloud printing available, you may not always see your installed printer on the taskbar anymore. But you can create a printer shortcut in your Windows 10 taskbar.

Before you can create a printer shortcut in your Windows 10 desktop or taskbar, you'll need to make sure you have a printer installed. Then you can create the shortcut and pin it to your taskbar.

How to Install a Printer to Your Windows PC

1. If you haven't connected any printer to your computer yet, you'll need to do so first. Most printer manufacturers have their own printer software you can use to establish the connection, especially for Wi-Fi printers. For example, HP printers use the HP Smart app. Dell, Sharp, and others have their own driver software. Make sure to install it and use it to connect to your printer as a first step.

2. If you've connected your printer to the Wi-Fi network, Windows can attempt to auto-connect to it if you've installed the manufacturer's driver software. To do this, select the Start menu and type Settings. Select the Settings app, Select Printers and scanners from the left pane. Select Add a printer or scanner, select The printer that I want isn't listed, select Add a printer using a TCP/IP address or hostname, select Next, and type the IP address of the printer in the Hostname or IP address field. Select Next and finish the installation.

How to Add the Shortcut

1. Next, you'll need the exact name of the printer to create the shortcut. To do this, select the Start menu and type Settings. Select the Settings app. In the Settings window, select Devices.

2. In the Devices window, select Printers & scanners from the left pane. Find the printer you've added under the Printers & scanners section, and make note of the exact printer name.

3. Right-click any blank area of the desktop, and select New. Select Shortcut from the next dropdown menu.

4. In the Create Shortcut window, paste the following string in the location field and select Next:

   rundll32.exe printui.dll,PrintUIEntry /o /n "Name of Printer"

   Replace Name of Printer in the string above to the name of the printer you noted in the previous step.

5. On the next window, give the shortcut a name. You can use the name of the printer if you wish.

6. Once you've created the shortcut, double-click it to make sure it works. If it's working properly, you'll see the window for the printer queue appear with all active print jobs.

7. Next, it's a good idea to give the shortcut a printer icon. To do this, right-click the shortcut icon and select Properties.

8. In the Properties window, select the Shortcut tab and select the Change Icon button.

9. Select the Browse button, browse to shell32.dll in the \Windows\System32\ folder, select it, and then select the printer image from the list of system icons. Select OK when you're done.

   You don't have to select the printer icon from this list. You can customize the printer icon with any image you like, but the printer icon will provide the same feel as the previous printer taskbar link on previous versions of Windows.

10. If you're happy with having a printer shortcut on the desktop, you can stop here. However, if you want to add the printer icon to your Windows 10 taskbar, right-click the shortcut and select Pin to taskbar.

11. This will pin the Printer queue shortcut to your Windows 10 taskbar. Any time you want to view active print jobs in the print queue, you can select this icon.