When troubleshooting printer issues that might be related to the driver or printing system, a common step often referred to as a "reset" is to restart the Print Spooler service. This service manages print jobs and interactions between your computer and the printer driver.
Below are the steps to restart the Print Spooler service, based on the provided reference:
Restarting the Print Spooler service can often resolve common printing problems like jobs getting stuck in the queue or the printer appearing offline when it shouldn't be.
Here's how to perform this action:
- Open the Control Panel: Search for and open "Control Panel" via the Windows search bar.
- Access Administrative Tools: Within the Control Panel, find and open the "Administrative Tools" section. You might need to change the Control Panel view to "Small icons" or "Large icons" to see this option directly.
- Open Services: Double-click the "Services" shortcut within Administrative Tools. This opens a window listing all services running on your computer.
- Handle Administrative Credentials: If your current user account does not have administrative privileges, you will need to run Services with administrator rights. To do this, hold down the Shift key while right-clicking on the "Services" shortcut (from step 3) and choose Run as.... Provide administrative credentials when prompted.
- Restart Print Spooler: In the Services window, scroll down to find the service named "Print Spooler". Right-click on it and select Restart. This will stop and then automatically start the service.
After restarting the service, wait a moment for it to initialize before trying to print again.
Verification (Optional step based on reference)
The reference also includes a step to repeat steps 1-4. While not strictly necessary for the restart itself, repeating these steps allows you to navigate back to the Services list to potentially verify that the "Print Spooler" service is now listed as "Running".
- Repeat steps 1-4 above: Follow the steps again to open the Services window (Control Panel > Administrative Tools > Services, handling admin rights if necessary). Check the "Status" column for "Print Spooler" to ensure it shows "Running".
This process specifically addresses restarting the Print Spooler service, which is a key component of the Windows printing system and often resolves issues mistakenly attributed solely to the printer driver itself.
