How to manually start, stop, or restart the Print Spooler Service

How to start, stop, or restart print spooler in Windows 7

Overview

A print spooler is software that temporarily stores print jobs on the computer hard disk or in memory until the printer is ready to print them. If you've been waiting an unusually long time for a document to print, or if you see an error message about the print spooler, spooler subsystem, or spooler resources, you might need to change and then restart the Print Spooler service on your computer.

To do this, we recommend that you save your work, and then restart the computer to restart the Print Spooler service. If you don't want to restart the computer, try these steps instead.

How to manually start, stop, or restart the Print Spooler Service

To change or restart the Print Spooler service

You must be logged on as an administrator to perform these steps.

1. Open Administrative Tools by clicking the Start button , clicking Control Panel, clicking System and Maintenance, and then clicking Administrative Tools.
2. Double-click Services. If you are prompted for an administrator password or confirmation, type the password or provide confirmation.
3. Right-click the Print Spooler service, and then click Properties.
4. On the General tab, next to Startup type, make sure that Automatic is selected.
5. If the service is not already running, under Service status, click Start, and then click OK. If you are prompted for an administrator password or confirmation, type the password or provide confirmation.