Clear the Windows XP Print Spool Manually

Mon. June 16, 2008
Categories: Ramblings...

Had a case where a file was printed, and immediately the spooler service started dying.

If I started the spooler, the printer objects would hang any time I tried to clean up the spool.  A reboot would result in the spooler crashing on startup, then subsequently hanging.

Quick & Dirty Method:

  1. From a CLI run NET STOP SPOOLER and wait for the spooler to stop.
  2. Navigate to the C:\Windows\System32\Spool folder and then rename the folder PRINTERS to PRINTERS.OLD.  Lastly, create a new folder named PRINTERS.
  3. Back at your CLI, run NET START SPOOLER.  The spooler for every printer on the system should be clear.

2 Responses to “Clear the Windows XP Print Spool Manually”

  1. James Landrum Says:
    July 1st, 2008 at 11:17 am

    Wow, that simple. Makes me annoyed that no other site could give this simple guide.

  2. Marlin Says:
    July 2nd, 2008 at 6:16 pm

    I’m going to keep adding more stuff as I run into it. Usually I can find stuff on Google but I keep running into situations where I find overly complicated non-solutions to seemingly easy problems… Worse yet, there are tons of sites which simply repeat those same non-solutions ad nauseum. Glad it helped you out!

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