Printers are one among the popular IT devices that we use in our day-to-day life for printing documents and performing other functions. Print spooler is a service that spools print jobs and manage interaction with the printers. You will be unable to use your printer if you disable this service on it.
It means that the print spooler services should be continuously running so that you can print your documents with an ease. The Print Spooler services can be started through Services tool you must have to reset printer spooler whenever it creates a problem for you. You must be familiar with the printer spooler reset procedures to bring it again in working state. Check out the detailed article to know how to reset Printer Spooler services when it gets automatically stopped.
Table of Contents
How to fix print spooler using Services using Windows 10 Services?
It is quite simple and easy to reset printer spooler windows 10 using services. All you have to do is:
- First of all, click on the search box locates at the bottom-left corner of your Windows 10 system.
- Type in services.msc and then click on the top result from the context menu to open the Services console.
- Right-click the Print Spooler service and then click on the Properties option.
- Then, click on the General tab and then click on the Stop button.
- Use the Windows key + R keyboard shortcut to open the Run command.
- Type the following path: C:\Windows\System32\spool\printers and press Enter button. This will open the printer folder.
- Next, click on the Continue button to move further (if applicable).
- Press Ctrl + A keys to select everything from the “printers” folder and then press the Delete button to remove the contents.
- Then, click on the General tab from the “Printer Spooler Properties” page.
- Tab the Start button to restart the service.
- At last, click the OK button.
Once you are done with the above steps, try to print a sample document to make sure that the printer is working as expected.
How do I reset the print spooler using Command Prompt?
Resetting your printer spooler using Command Prompt is very easy. All you have to do is execute some set of commands to make the operation successful. For this:
- Firstly, click on the Search box of your screen.
- Type cp in the search box and then right-click on Command Prompt to open it. Then, choose the Run as Administrator option from the context menu.
- Type the following commands one-by-one and press enter after each command. This will basically stop the print spooler and delete all the printers folder content.
- net stop spooler
- del /Q /F /S “%systemroot%\System32\Spool\Printers\*.*”
- net start spooler
- Your printer spooler will get automatically restarted after executing the above steps. After completing the steps, you can send the print job to the printer, and this time your printer may work properly.
If you are facing any problem while executing the steps given above, you need to scan your hard disk for malware using any third-party app. Please select any specific anti-malware as per your business needs and follow all the on-screen instructions to download and run a scan on your printer if it has stopped working. You can also scan your hard disk for malware; there are several applications that may help you in this issue. You will find more information from the manual guide of your printer.
Frequently Asked Questions
How do I restart the print spooler in Windows 10?
To restart your print spooler, you have to:
- Type in Services in the search box of your Windows.
- Select the Services Desktop App from the context menu.
- Scroll down and right-click on Print Spooler services.
- At last, click on the Restart button.
How do I clear the print spooler on a network printer?
Follow the steps given below to delete the files from the print spooler queue manually:
- Go through: start>run>services.msc.
- Locate print spooler, right-click on it and tap stop button.
- Go to “c:\windows\system32\spool\printers” folder.
- Press Ctrl + A to select all and then delete everything present in that folder.
How to fix printer spooler service?
To fix printer spooler service, do this:
- Press “Window key” + “R” to open the Run dialog.
- Type “services. msc“, then click on the “OK“ button.
- Double-click the “Printer Spooler” service, and then change the startup type to “Automatic“.
- At last, restart the system and try to install the printer again.