How to Restart Windows Print Spooler on Windows 10 / 11

How to Restart Windows Print Spooler on Windows 10 / 11. We have all been annoyed or frustrated by printing issues on multiple occasions. Sometimes the issues are to be fixed by a simple computer or printer restart.

But sometimes it is highly inconvenient to restart the computer, or the problem just persists. So next time, you are put out of sorts by this mere printing issue, look for the print spooler service and see if the print spooler is hung up and needs to be reset.

Well, the print jobs are sent to the printer by the Windows Printer Spooler. Basically, the print spooler loads and unloads the printing jobs onto the print queue. Your printing jobs stops if the printer pauses or hangs.

The only way to get the printing to function is to restart or reset this service. In nutshell, this article will go over various ways to restart the print spooler on the Windows 10/11 system.

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What is Print Spooler

Due to its slow processing speed and limited storage capacity, the printer cannot quickly process all the data associated with the print job.

Because of this, the printer requires software to identify which documents should be printed first (based on who clicked print first) and then pass a list of documents one at a time rather than sending everything at once.

That’s where the print spooler comes into play. The print spooler, a software interface and service that controls the printing process and the sequence of print jobs, is the most crucial part of the printing process.

Certainly, it handles printing in the background as you use your computer as usual.

in turn, the spooler receives print requests from the computer and ensures that there are sufficient printer resources.

Additionally, the print spooler is in charge of adding and removing tasks from the queue. After, it arranges the sequence of print jobs in the  print queue and schedule it for printing.

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Basic Operation of the Spooler

Another key point, a spooler is a unique procedure that controls how multiple people may access printers. And it controls every task that is sent to the printer.

In reality, a print job is a request to the spooler to manage the process output. The temporary print file is where the spooler stores the output that is meant for the printer.

All in all, to process all requests on a first-come, first-served basis, the spooler keeps a queue. Certainly, the print queue keeps information about each print file and its destination.

Consequently, the spooler checks each entry in the queue to see if the designated printer is available to perform the task. If the printer is available, the task is completed right away. But, if the printer is not accessible, it is either offline or currently printing a work.

Image Source: xerxes.cs.

In both scenarios, the spooler retains the print job in the queue until the printer is prepared to accept it.

Numerous problems, like print spooler repeatedly halting and the print spooler service not operating, might arise when you use print spooler. In such cases, the print spooler needs to be reset or restarted to resolve the majority of problems.

Follow this post to learn how to restart the print spooler on Windows 10/11.

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How to Restart Windows Print Spooler on Windows 10 / 11

Restart the Print Spooler Using Task Manager

Using Task Manager is likely the simplest method for starting, stopping, or restarting the Print Spooler Service in Windows 10 or 11.

Additionally, you may see each task (process) and the overall performance of the computer using the Task Manager, a feature of the operating system.

A). Open the Task Manager from the startup. Switch to the Services tab, scroll to Spooler, and then right-click on it on the Task Manager screen.

 

B). Next, choose Restart from the drop-down menu.

C). In the event that the spooler is down, the Restart option might not be accessible.

D). The Print Spooler Service may then be stopped by right clicking the Spooler item and choosing the Stop option, after which it can be started again by choosing the Start option.

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Restart Print Spooler Through Command Prompt

Method 1: net Command

The net use command may be used in the Command Prompt to establish, break, and modify connections to shared resources such as network printers and mapped disks.

You can use this command to stop the Windows print spooler service.

1.Go to the start and search for the Command Prompt. Right click on it and select the Run as administrator option.

2. Next, stop the print spooler service using the following command.

				
					net stop spooler
				
			

3. After that, you can remove the print job files if they are causing issues using the command below.

				
					del /Q /F /S "%windir%\System32\spool\PRINTERS\*.*"
				
			

3. Finally, restart the print spooler service again using the following command.

				
					net start spooler
				
			

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Method 2: sc Command

Open the command prompt as an administrator in Windows and then restart Print Spooler from there.

Worth nothing, that Windows comes with a powerful command-line tool called service control (sc) that you may use to start, stop, restart, or customize any Windows service.

Use the SC commands listed below to restart Spooler:

				
					sc stop Spooler
sc start Spooler
				
			

You can use the following command to check the state of the Print Spooler service on a Windows machine.

				
					sc query spooler
				
			

Additionally, you can view the service settings with the help of the following command.

				
					sc qc spooler
				
			

The output includes information such as the starting type and the binary path of spoolsv.exe.

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Restart the Print Spooler Using Services Application 

In the Windows operating system, print spooler manages by the print jobs. From the GUI, the spooler service (spoolsv.exe) can be stopped and restarted (Windows Services console).

You can use two methods to launch the service application.

Search the Services application from the Start menu. Right click on it and select the Run as administrator option from the drop down to start it.

Alternatively, you launch the service application from the Run dialog. Press the Win+R key to open the run dialog. Type services.msc in the blank space and click OK.

In the Services window, scroll to Print Spooler and right click on it. Click on the Restart option in the drop down menu.

Additionally, you can configure that the print spooler service to launch automatically. To do that, right click on the Print Spooler and select the Properties option from the menu.

When the properties window pops up, change the startup type to Automatic.

Click on Apply and OK to save this change to the Print Spooler service on your computer. This will make sure that spooler services start up with a computer startup.

That’s it for the Windows print spooler restart methods. Now, everything should go smoothly while printing.

Thank you for reading Restart Windows Print Spooler on Windows 10 / 11. We should now conclude. 

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How to Restart Windows Print Spooler on Windows 10 / 11 Conclusion

If you are encountering an error or the printing process stops altogether despite your printer working, you might need to restart the Windows Print Spooler service.

Print spooler is a piece of software that works behind the scenes to make sure your printing jobs are done in an orderly manner. But it comes with its own issues.

This article goes over various methods to restart the hung or halted print spooler on a Windows 10 or 11 system.

Explore our printing section to learn more.