How to Stop Printer Spooler on Windows Computer

Use Command Prompt

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Open the Start menu. You can open the Start menu by pressing the Windows key on your keyboard, or clicking the Start icon in the lower left corner of the screen.

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Enter cmd. On the Start menu, type cmd , this is the code to find the Command Prompt. Command Prompt will appear in the program list.

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Open Command Prompt as administrator. Right-click the Command Prompt icon and select Run As Administrator from the drop-down menu. Click yes on the pop-up warning dialog box.

Command Prompt allows you to enter commands as text into the computer. These commands can also be completed with a graphical interface, keyboard, or mouse, but you can save time by using the command prompt.

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Enter "net stop spooler". Type net stop spooler into the command prompt, then press ↵ Enter. You will see the message The Print Spooler service is stopping. If successful, after a while, the message The Print Spooler service was stopped successfully will appear.

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Delete the print job. To keep the printer from starting to print documents after the Print Spooler system is restarted, you will have to cancel any pending print jobs. Enter C:Windowssystem32spoolPRINTERS in the File Explorer address bar and press ↵ Enter. A dialog box may pop up asking if you want to continue as admin. Click Continue when asked.

Do not delete the PRINTERS folder, only the items inside.

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Restart the Print Spooler service. In order for the system to continue printing documents in the future, you will have to restart the Print Spooler service. Type net start spooler into the command prompt and press ↵ Enter. If successful, you will see the message The Print Spooler service was started successfully.

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Close Command Prompt. The Print Spooler service has stopped sending commands and will not print any documents from the queue. You can close the command prompt.

Use Administrative Tools

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Pause printing. If possible, pausing the print queue for a moment will give you time to cancel jobs in the queue.

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Open Control Panel. Press the Windows key, type Control Panel , then press ↵ Enter.

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Find and double-click Administrative Tools. In the options on Control Panel, you will see Administrative Tools . This option will help you customize and install the system.

Note that tweaking too many options in the Administrative Tools program can potentially damage the system. You should just focus on stopping the Print Spooler.

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Find and double-click Services. On the Administrative Tools window, find and double-click the Services option . A list of services running on the computer will appear.

If you don't see this option, try pressing the 's' key while in the Administrative Tools window. Each time you press the 's' key, all options starting with the letter 's' will be scrolled through.

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Right-click "Print Spooler" and select Stop. On the Services window, find and right-click the Print Spooler option . From the drop-down menu, select Stop . The Print Spooler service will stop and destroy all documents in the printer queue.

If you don't find the Print Spooler option , try pressing the 'p' key to scroll through all the options in the list whose names begin with the letter 'p'.

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Delete the print job. To prevent the printer from starting to print documents after the Print Spooler system is restarted, you need to cancel any pending print jobs. Enter C:Windowssystem32spoolPRINTERS in the File Explorer address bar and press ↵ Enter. A dialog box may pop up asking if you want to continue as admin. Click Continue when asked.

Do not delete the PRINTERS folder, only the items inside.

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Restart the Print Spooler. Right-click the Print Spooler option and select Start . Your printer is ready to receive new print jobs.

Use Task Manager

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Open Task Manager. Press Ctrl+ Alt+ Delete, then click Task Manager.

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Click the service card. Click the Services tab from the tabs at the top of the Task Manager window. A list of all services running on the computer will appear.

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Stop Spooler. Find the Spooler service , right-click it and select Stop from the drop-down menu.

If you don't see the Spooler service, try pressing the 's' key to scroll through all items whose names begin with the letter 's'.

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Delete the print job. To prevent the printer from starting to print documents after the Print Spooler system is restarted, you need to cancel any pending print jobs. Enter C:Windowssystem32spoolPRINTERS in the File Explorer address bar and press ↵ Enter. A dialog box may pop up asking if you want to continue as admin. Click Continue when asked.

Do not delete the PRINTERS folder, only the items inside.

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Restart Spooler. Right-click the Spooler option in Task Manager's services list and select Start from the drop-down menu.

Jessica Tanner

Update 23 June 2024