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Windows 10: How to Print Multiple Files

Windows 10: How to Print Multiple Files

March 29, 2021 by Mel Hawthorne 13 Comments

There are multiple ways to select more than one file for printing files in Windows 10 – they require different key presses. Below is a collection of these keyboard combinations or hotkeys and instructions on how to use them!

  1. Select “Start” > “Settings“.
  2. Select “Printers & scanners” in the left pane. This will display all the printers you have installed.
  3. Select the printer you wish to use, then select “Open queue“. This will open the print queue window for that printer.
    Windows 10 Open Print Queue
  4. Navigate to the relevant file explorer location. You can only mark multiple files that are in the same location (for example your Desktop), but not ones from two different places. If you want to do that, you’ll have to repeat the process for every directory location that has some of the files you want to print – or you can move them into the same location first.
    • Ctrl
Files selected with Ctrl.

This is the easiest way to mark a few files for printing. To use this hotkey, simply click on the first file you want to select, then press the Ctrl key. While holding this key, click on all the other files you want to print. Don’t worry about letting go – you can release the Ctrl key to scroll up and down for example, as long as you don’t click anywhere. Hold the key again to select more files.

Tip: At the bottom left of your file explorer, a little counter will tell you how many files you’ve selected. Use this to check whether or not you have all the files you want!

When all the ones you want to print are selected, press the Ctrl + P keys at the same time. The usual print menu will open up and you’ll be able to select your printer and go through the process as normal.

Tip: By holding Ctrl and clicking on an already-selected file, you can un-select said file.

    • Ctrl + Shift
Files selected with Ctrl + Shift.

This key combination is ideal for selecting a larger number of adjacent files. For example, if you have a series of photos titled ‘1.png’, ‘2.png’, ‘3.png’, ’20.png’ and so on, and you only want to select images ‘4.png’ through to ’11.png’, this keyboard combination is ideal.

To use it, click on the first file in the series you want to mark (or the last) and press and hold Ctrl + Shift. Then, click on the other end of the series of files you are looking to print. All files between the two files you clicked on will be selected!

Tip: After you’ve used this command to select a range, you can also use the single Ctrl press to add or remove individual files from the selection you made. You can NOT, however, add a second range to it.

Once you have all of the files you want to print selected, click Ctrl + P and go through the steps to print the files.

Tip: If you have made a longer selection and you want to shorten the overall selection without having to de-select each file, you can do that too – simply press Shift and click on the file you want to be the last of the selection.

You can use this to shorten a selection of 2-13 to 2-7, for example.

    • Ctrl + A
Files selected with Ctrl + A.

This command selects all files within a certain location. So, if there are 15 files in a file explorer location, pressing Ctrl + A together will select all 15. This will work whether there are 2 or 20 files!

Tip: If you want to select all but a few files from one location, it may be quicker to select all and then unselect a few files than to select the majority individually!

When you have all of the files you wish to print highlighted, drag them to the print queue window.

Windows 10 Drag and Drop to Print Queue

Good to know: There is another way to select multiple files for printing or any other purpose – instead of using keyboard combinations, you can also click and drag your mouse cursor across an area to select everything in it, like this:

Selection via click and drag.

This method of selection can also be combined with the Ctrl key selection method. When you’ve collected the files you want to print, once again press Ctrl + P to open the print menu.

 

I hope this tutorial has helped you figure out how to print multiple files in Windows 10. Hit me with some comments if you have trouble.

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Filed Under: Windows Tagged With: Windows 10

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Patty says

    November 22, 2022 at 11:58 am

    All of my 2 sided pdfs printed out single sided. Is there a way for the print dialog box to pop up?

  2. Shannon says

    July 26, 2022 at 8:39 am

    Is there any way to print more than one copy of each? I never get a print dialog. As soon as I right click on print, the printer starts printing.

  3. Shannon says

    July 26, 2022 at 8:37 am

    Selecting files in a folder, right clicking and selecting “print” works in Windows 10. As long as it isn’t more than 15 files.

  4. Kon says

    June 20, 2022 at 1:41 pm

    I followed the instructions above to print multiple PDFs at once. Initially it didn’t work with EDGE set as the default PDF viewer. Then I switched the default PDF viewer to be Adobe Acrobat Viewer. After making this switch, the print queue drag and drop option noted above worked.

  5. Jeremiah Christensen says

    May 11, 2022 at 2:16 pm

    Does not work with PDFs 05/11/22

  6. Br_bass_fishin says

    May 11, 2022 at 10:14 am

    This worked for me without any issues. Thanks for the help

  7. William Alverson says

    January 24, 2022 at 7:37 am

    I am using windows 10. THIS DOES NOT WORK

  8. hugo says

    November 24, 2021 at 5:18 am

    feature doesn’t work. Why al those changes!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

  9. Doonser Barrymore says

    November 9, 2021 at 5:43 pm

    So, in the case of a large number of files, this also works if I SHIFT-click from the first file to the last, then CTRL-click to deselect one file. “Print” appears in the context menu.

    However, if I try to deselect two files using this method, “Print” does not appear in the context menu.

    This may be related to the tip above that says,

    “Tip: After you’ve used this command to select a range, you can also use the single Ctrl press to add or remove individual files from the selection you made. You can NOT, however, add a second range to it.”

  10. Diane B says

    October 31, 2021 at 12:04 am

    Does it work in windows 11?

  11. Smoothbassman says

    June 30, 2021 at 6:37 am

    Yeah. Just tested this method, and it does not work as of July 30th 2021. Don’t understand why Windows took this feature away.

  12. Mr Michael John Hopkins says

    June 22, 2021 at 10:16 pm

    Doesn’t work in Windows 10 as of June 2021

  13. Sanjeev Sharma says

    June 11, 2021 at 6:29 am

    Dear HP Team,
    above mentioned requirement is not fulfil and nor working properly.

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