Windows, DataFlex support: delete obsolete Brother printer

Symtpom: cannot print to a shared printer from a custom DataFlex application.

Yes, DataFlex is very old. It still works (April 2018).

This command line syntax works great to reveal all Windows printers and their share names (tested on Windows 10 64-bit):

wmic printer list brief

We had one Brother printer listed with a non-blank ShareName AND a PrinterState of 4. Because the physical printer was long gone from the premises, it did NOT show itself in Windows Control Panel, Devices and Printer, listing of the printers. However clearly it was still in the operating system and apparently causing some kind of conflict.

Deleting that specific one was easy once the right wmic syntax was found:

 wmic printer where sharename="CL" delete

NB: a REBOOT of Windows was necessary.

After this, two things worked which previously had failed.

1. Copy printme.txt  \\compname\sharename

   where compname was the computer name and sharename was the sharename of a valid active Brother printer (previously this led to a long timeout followed by a networking error message)
2. Printing in dataflex using its syntax, which reverses the slashes compared to what Windows usually does.
   Example:
   • Windows \\compname\sharename
   • Dataflex //compname/sharename