Print Spooler Windows 10

[Edward]

The primary component of the printing interface is the print spooler. The print spooler is an executable file that manages the printing process. Management of printing involves retrieving the location of the correct printer driver, loading that driver, spooling high-level function calls into a print job, scheduling the print job for printing, and so on. The spooler is loaded at system startup and continues to run until the operating system is shut down.

Applications that print create a printer device context (DC). When an application creates a printer DC, the spooler performs necessary tasks such as determining the location of the required printer driver and then loading that driver. The print spooler also determines the data type used to record the print job.

Custom data types can be added to the spooler by installing additional printer drivers and print processors. A print job is a document stored internally and encoded by using one of the supported data types, and a print job may contain one or more pages of output. The print job may consist of multiple forms; for example, a job may consist of one envelope and three pages of A4 paper. A print job is defined (or bracketed) by the StartDoc and EndDoc functions.

The default data type for a print job is the enhanced metafile. An EMF record is a compact structure used to store text output commands, raster graphics commands, and so on. When an application calls StartDoc, the spooler creates a spool file and a data file and begins storing EMF records in the spool file. Each time the application calls one of the GDI drawing functions, one or more new EMF records are created and stored in the spool file. The spool and data files are created in an operating system directory. The spooler uses the spool file to store EMF records and uses the data file to record the type of form, the data type for the print job, the target printer, and so on. The spooler deletes these files when the job has successfully printed.

The printspooler service is a service that is running on each computer thatparticipates in the Print Services system. The print spooler service implementsthe print client and print server roles, byenabling each participating system to act as a print client, administrativeclient, or print server for the Print Services system.

Implementation of the print client role can includeimplementation of the print server role in the print spooler service due to thedual client/server implementation of the Print System Remote Protocol [MS-RPRN]on most Windows Client operating system versions. If animplementation acts as print client only, it supports all Print System RemoteProtocol methods and can optionally support the Print System AsynchronousRemote Protocol [MS-PAR].

For the print server role, the print spooler serviceregisters the RPC endpointsfor the print protocols [MS-PAR] [MS-RPRN] [MS-PAN].The print spooler service also exposes local interfaces that extend Internet Information Services(IIS) to support the InternetPrinting Protocol (IPP) [RFC8010] [RFC8011] and theWeb Point-and-Print Protocol [MS-WPRN]if they are configured to support IPP.

For the print client role, the print spooler service can usepolling to collect changes that are related to printers or to print jobs on the server,or the print spooler service can call the Print System Remote Protocolnotification callback functions that are exposed in that protocol's RPCendpoint. Firewall settings or Windows Group Policy settings canprevent the client from receiving printing notifications. The Windows behavioris to use polling in such scenarios. Additionally, the print spooler serviceexposes local interfaces that are used by client applications to print, obtain print queue status,administer print queues, or perform other print-specific actions.

We have seen this problem on two Windows 11 systems with the latest Thunderbird version. The last system had version 115.5.1. The first system was a couple of months ago and I do not remember what version we used there.

What happens is that the print spooler is stopped (often, but not always) when Thunderbird is started. A manual start of the spooler after starting Thunderbird then enables printing again on the system.

On the first one we did not know what was causing the print spooler to stop. We wiped the system, re-installed Windows and everything else. The problem was gone after that. In hindsight we do not know why this fixed it. Apparently this is not just a problem in Thunderbird alone?

On the second one we added an extra Windows user with administrative rights and changed the original user to a standard user. Then Thunderbird (or another culprit?) no longer has sufficient privileges to kill the spool server on startup of Thunderbird and that seems to work.

A problem with the print spooler can cause some printing and communication issues. Sometimes, restarting or clearing the print spooler may resolve these issues. The print spooler helps your Windows computer interact with the printer, and orders the print jobs in your queue.

It is also possible to delete printers from the computer's registry. If the printer cannot be deleted or removed, and restarting the print spooler has not cleared the issue, remove the printer manually from the registry.

The print spooler is a dedicated program/software that essentially manages the order of the documents to proceed to the print queue. When you select print, your program talks to the print spooler service to work out how to render (or draw) your print job so the printer will understand it and put the colors in the right spots on the page. There are all different types of spoolers in computing (once upon a time there were literal tape spools running inside computers), so the print spooler, you guessed it, takes care of just your print documents.

One of the most used outside of Windows is the Common UNIX Printing System (CUPS) which lets a computer act as a print server and does the print spooling and scheduling. CUPS uses the Internet Printing Protocol (IPP) to manage print jobs and queues.

The thing that is strange is I start the print spooler and then click "Add Printer" and I again get the 1st screenshot and when I check back in services.msc it is stopped!! I have all dependendent services running like RPC etc.

I also tried going into control panel into "Turn windows features on and off" in Program and features and uninstall document and print services. Still nothing works. The last option that comes to my mind due to this silly issue is format my machine but it is not at all viable. Print spooler brought tears in my eyes!! I need to get it working anyhow.

I had the same problem recently. There was a corrupt document in the spool. Go to the folder C:\Windows\System32\spool\PRINTERS and delete any files in that folder. Do not delete any subfolders or files in those subfolders. Then try starting the service again and see it it stays running for a minute or more.

"Nothing" worked out in my case as suggested on this thread or any other thread on forums. I had to install "Registry Mechanic" and clean registry. Make sure you install the latest version. It found 2100 corrupted keys in registry. After it fixed everything is working smooth and fine. However I still don't know which key it was :p but I'm glad now that it is fixed :-)

It's happened more than once, even after replacing the print drivers more than once. To work around the issue I've created the user a batch file. I'm more comfortable on Mac Unix or Linux, so Powershell isn't my thing.

Under Control Panel and Administrative tools theres a new option here in windows 7 labled Print Management. From here you can see all the printers you have ever installed and all the drivers that are still amongst the system. under the option All Drivers on the left is where I found the print driver I new was hanging around somewhere but couldnt find to remove, Right clicking on the printer name and choosing Remove Printer Package allowed for windows 7 to scan for and find the drivers and allows you to delete them. (Similar to the Server properties Drivers Tab from previous windows versions)

Next. start>run>c:\windows\system32\print.exe. Right click on the file. Change ownership of the file from Trusted Installer to Adminstrators. Once Administrator has ownership, change permissions for all listed user to Full Control. Apply and OK.

My guess is that this is a bad driver. You might download Process Monitor and attempt to find out which files are accessed when you start the print spooler. My guess is that you have a bad print driver or print monitor.

This isn't an elegant solution, but if you have a bad driver, you may have to manually clear the subdirectories under C:\Windows\System32\spool\drivers to prevent the drivers from loading. Also make sure you don't have any print monitors (monitoring consumer-level printers), PDF printers, FAX printers, etc. running.

There is no error in screen or logs file in Apache, so i assume the PHP code run well. And I see the data is in Windows print spooler. The problem is it stuck in there, and it cannot produce the output from printer.

I assume the problem is because the windows permission problem (I am using windows 8, test in windows 7 or XP cannot work too). I have 4 test printer: 1. HP Laser Jet 401, 2. PDF Printer, 3. Windows Fax, 4. XPS document writer.

Out of the blue I lost my printer connection. When I look at my printer menu there is no printer listed. When I try to add or install a printer, I get some odd message about a printer spooler is not running. Restart the machine. I've tried unhooking the printer, rebooting, unhooking from the power source. I even went into some area as an administrator and found the print spool task and when I clicked on the start button there was no action.

I actually just ran into this problem myself and while looking for an answer, I ran into this post. I have a Pixma Canon MP250 and I also have Windows 8.1. Is there a way to fix the spooler problem so that I can use my printer once more? It's so weird because I was using it just yesterday and today out of the blue it stopped working and I have no idea whatsover what 'caused it. Any help would be greatly appreciated! Thanks in advance.

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