On Windows 7, you may have noticed that when you install two or more printers, that use the same printer on the same port, all such printers are, by design, grouped together as one in the Control Panel’s Devices and Printers applet.

However, if you’d like to see the list of installed printers separately, KB2015694 shows a workaround. This workaround will create a folder on the desktop named Printers which will include all of the installed printers separately:

To do so, open the Registry Editor and navigate to the following key:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Desktop\NameSpace

Right click NameSpace and choose ‘New Key’

Name this new key: {2227a280-3aea-1069-a2de-08002b30309d}

Now, in the right pane, edit the value of ‘Default’ as ‘Printers’

Exit Registry Editor.

You will see a new folder called ‘Printers’ appear on the desktop which will show all of the installed printers separately.