Fix Spooling Frozen In Windows 10
In this post, we will be showing you how you can restart the printer spooler on your Windows 10 PC or laptop.
There are many reasons for restarting the Printer Spooler. Perhaps you are having a few issues with your printer, or maybe the spooling has frozen and it wont unfreeze.
Restarting the printer spooler in Windows 10 usually resolves most printing issues, especially if the spooling has frozen in the printer queue, which will stop all print jobs.
****Top Tip****Just keep in mind if you do restart the printer spooler you will lose your entire print queue so you will need to reprint everything that was on the list again
Restarting The Printer Spooler In Windows 10:
1. Open the Windows 10 start menu > Search Services and open it
2. Find Printer Spooler in the list
3. Right click Printer Spooler and click Restart
4. Once the Printer Spooler has finished restarting the status colum will show Running
You can now try and print again and see if that has resolved the printing issues you were facing. If you are still having issues with the printer job saying spooling then you could always try stopping and starting the Printer Spooler:
Stopping and starting the Printer Spooler:
1. In Services right-click on Printer Spooler and click Stop
2. Once the Printer Spooler has stopped now right-click it again but this time click Start
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Why Does My Print Spooler Keep Stopping Windows 10
Print spooler keeps stopping windows 10. Sometimes Print Spooler service can keep stopping due to corrupt Print Spooler files, You can remove those files to fix this problem. Press Windows key + R and type services .msc in the search field and press enter. In the Services listed stop the Print Spooler service.
How To Restart Print Spool/clear Print Queue Of Remote Computers Via The Command Line
Posted: Thu Jun 10, 2010 1:00 pm |
I work in an environment where printers are getting stuck on a fairly regular basis. We use two TS servers that users print through using a client named ThinPrint to about 50 different printers. People are assigned printers based on their workstation, etc…I’m often stopping the print spooler, clearing out c:\windows\system32\spool\printers and then restarting the spooler on remote machines. The printers are scattered around the network on servers and workstations alike. I have a few options when it comes to resolving the queue issues:1. Log on locally or remotely via RDC/VNC and stop/start the spooler and delete the files within explorer. Not a fan, especially if it’s a workstation as I’ll interrupt the user’s day. Not so bad for servers.2. Add the services snap in for the particular computer, stop the service, navigate to \\workstation\c$\windows\system32\spool\printers from a run prompt and delete the print jobs fairly quickly. This works, but my MMC tends to run slowly with 50 computers services added, and I can’t figure out a way to organize a nice, big MMC. A topic for another day.3. Use the command line. I’d like to be able to use “net stop spooler,” but I can’t figure out the syntax for a remote PC. Would I use “sc” to communicate with the NT service controler and services, or am I barking up the wrong tree?Other suggestions are welcome, too, thanks. |
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How To Stop And Restart The Print Spooler Service In Windows
The Print Spooler is software built into the Windows operating system that temporarily stores print jobs in the computer’s memory until the printer is ready to print them.
In some circumstances you may need to stop and/or restart the service. To access the Print Spooler you must open the Local Services console.
How to Stop the Print Spooler service
How to start the Print Spooler
More About The Print Spooler In Windows 10

The Print Spooler is the culprit behind many common printing errors on Windows. A spooler is a software program that organizes data in the correct order and sends it to any peripheral device with low memory, such as a printer. Thanks to this buffer, the printer doesnt have to pause in between successive print jobs. The Print Spooler is a local service on Windows that manages the print queue seamlessly.;;
When it fails, print jobs can get stuck in the queue; the print data doesnt get to the printer, or the spooler crashes. You can reset your spooler to solve these problems, which cancels the print job and allows you to begin again.
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Create An Account On The Hp Community To Personalize Your Profile And Ask A Question
Sometimes the Print Spooler service can get hung up or stop functioning.; When this happens often times a simple restart of the service can get things back in order.; Below I will describe some of the ways one can access the Print Spooler service and restart it.
For Windows 8:
There are a couple of ways one can access the services menu or restart the print spooler in Windows 8.
For Older versions of Windows
Solution #5: Uninstall Other Printers
Having more than one printer installed in your OS can sometimes cause issues with the Print Spooler and printing in general.
If you see that Print Spooler keeps stopping on Windows 10 PC, you might need to uninstall all the printers that you dont use or need.
Note: Note that this solution might only work if you had more than one printer installed on your PC. Sometimes different printer drivers can cause the Print Spooler service Keeps stopping problems. Ensure you remove all the printers youre not using or those you do not need.
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Look At The Logs To Track Down The Cause
How can you tell which print driver is causing the trouble? In a separate article we describe how to track down problematic print drivers. If you can track down which driver is causing the trouble, then you might be able to replace it with a different one or you can try making some of the configuration changes described below to prevent issues from occurring or limit the impact. This is also a great article to follow anytime you are seeing an application crash when trying to print.
How To Start Stop Or Restart Print Spooler In Windows 10 Using Task Manager
Step 1: Right-click on the Taskbar and click on Task Manager from the menu.
Step 2: In the Task Manager window, click on the Services tab and scroll down to look for Spooler. Check its status if its Running or not. It shows Stopped here.
Step 3: Right-click on Spooler and click on Start.
Step 4: Now when it shows Running status, right-click on it again and click on Restart to restart the Print Spooler service.
Your printer should be working perfectly fine now.
Step 5: To stop the service, right-click on Spooler and click on Stop to stop the service.
Thats about it! Thats how you can Start, Stop, or Restart the Print Spooler service using Task Manager.
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How To Fix Print Spooler Using Services
To fix the print spooler service to continue printing on Windows 10, use these steps:
Open Start on Windows 10.
Search for services.msc and click the top result to open the;Services console.
Right-click the Print Spooler service and select the Properties option.
Print Spooler in Services console for Windows 10
Click the General tab.
Use the Windows key + R keyboard shortcut to open the Run command.
Type the following path to the printers folder and press Enter:
C:\Windows\System32\spool\printers
Click the Continue button .
Select everything in the printers folder and hit the Delete button to remove the contents.
On the Printer Spooler Properties page, click the General tab.
Click the Start button to restart the service.
Start Print Spooler on Windows 10
Click the;OK button.
Once you complete the steps, you can try to print a document one more time, and the printer should work as expected.
Restoring Default Printer State
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How To Uninstall Print Spooler Service Windows 10
Once the print spooler service troubleshoot did not help, lets try to fix the issues with uninstalling and reinstalling the print spooler service.
Follow these steps:
You can uninstall services from the services.msc utility list in Windows 10 with one of these two ways.
Firstly, exit any print spooler service related programs like MS Word or MS Publisher.
Delete Printer Spooler Queue Files

As we took backup of queue files in the above steps, run below PowerShell script to delete spooler queue files and later start print spooler service.
# To delete the Printer Spooler filesRemove-Item -Path "$env:SystemRoot\System32\spool\PRINTERS\*.*"# Start print spooler serviceStart-Service -Name Spooler
In the above PowerShell script, Remove-Item cmdlet takes the printer spooler queue path specified with $env: path environment variable and delete all the files from the folders.
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Solution #7: Uninstall And Reinstall The Printer Drivers
This print spooler keeps stopping on Windows 10 error may also occur when the printer drivers are not updated.;
Youll need to update your printer driver manually or uninstall and reinstall the printer drivers from the manufacturers website.
Still on the Device;Manager;
How To Restart Printer Spooler Service On Workstation
# Get Spooler service object$PrintSpooler = Get-Service -Name Spooler#Restart Printer Spooler Service on WorkStationRestart-Service $PrintSpooler
In the above PowerShell script,
- Get Spooler Service object in $PrintSpooler variable
- Using Restart-Service restart print Spooler service on Workstation
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Printer Reset Tool For Windows 10
-
Quite a while ago, Microsoft had a tool for resetting the Windows printing subsystem.; This was quite useful in situations where nothing else could get a printer installation working.
I first came across this for Windows XP.; The tool was later modified to work for Windows 7 and Server 2008 R2.; For the latter OSes, the tool was released as a “FixIt” automatic routines.; For details, see and.
Of course, Microsoft “retired” these helpful routines long before the actual end of Windows 7 support.
Fortunately, however, the PowerShell script that was the guts of the FixIt routines was preserved, and is still available at GitHub:;
I assume that the script will not work on Windows 10, although I haven’t tried it.; Is there any similar tool available for cleaning out/resetting the printing subsystem for Windows 10?
Friday, December 21, 2018 11:10 PM
Android Spooler: How To Fix
Why clear cache and data?Android devices often store up information on your previous access as cached data. Such stored information can include documents, text, scripts, images, contacts, access date, etc. The purpose of storing such information is to speed up the next visits loading process. Clearing cache and data frees up the memory and any queued up items.
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Why You Need Print Spooler
Sometimes, the printer cannot immediately process all the information about what you are printing because it is not fast enough and has low storage space.
Therefore, the printer needs a program to decide in which order the documents should be printed , and then slowly pass the list of documents to be printed instead of sending all the documents at once.
If you use the Windows operating system, a background processing program will be built into the device. It is used with your printer to order print jobs. Spooler means you don’t have to wait for one job to finish before you can load another job. That is Print Spooler.
How Do I Restart The Print Spooler From The Task Manager
The spooler program isnt resource-hungry. But an error in the Windows printing system can cause the Print Spooler to consume memory. For such rare cases, use the Task Manager to stop and restart the spooler and see if that resolves the problem.;
Select Ctrl + Shift + Esc to open the Windows Task Manager.;
Select the Services tab and scroll down to Spooler on the list.
Check the Status. If the status is Running, right-click on it again and select Restart. Use the options on the right-click menu to Start or Stop the service when required.;
Now re-open the document you want to print and send it again to the printer.;
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Print Spooler Service Is Not Running Failed To Start Or Rpc Server Is Not Available
This error occurs during the installation of printer related devices because the RPC server cannot find the Print Spooler that is needed to install the drivers. This will occur if the Print Spooler is disabled or corrupted. It may also occur if another print driver is not permitting access to the Print Spooler.;;Complete the;following steps to manually restart the print spooler:1. On the computer, open the Administrative Tools folder:
Windows XP
Windows Vista
Windows 7
Windows 8 or 8.1
DesktopCharms barSettingsControl PanelCharms barStartControl Panel
Windows 10
Click Start ;Windows System Control Panel Systems and Security; Administrative Tools.
2. Double-click on Services.3. From the list of Services,;double-click on the Print Spooler.
4.;;Make sure that the Startup Type is set to Automatic.;;If not, select it from the dropdown list.5.;;Verify that the Service Status is Started or Running.
;;;; – If the Service Status states “Stopped” or “Paused”, then click the Start button.
;;;; – If the Service Status already states “Started” or “Running”, then click the Stop button.;;Wait until the service has stopped, then press the Start button.;If you are unable to start the Print Spooler service, then there is;a problem with your computer or a conflict with another driver.;Contact your computer manufacturer or System Admin for support.
6.;;Once the service is started, you may now attempt to use or reinstall the printer driver.;