How to Restart the Print Spooler From the Command Prompt

Techwalla may earn compensation through affiliate links in this story. Learn more about our affiliate and product review process here.

The print spooler serves as a temporary storage space for printing jobs on your computer. Once a print job is created, the contents are moved into the spooler until the printer is ready to process it. If the printer seems slow to print or you are receiving any spooler-related errors, you can often resolve the problem by just restarting the spooler service. In addition to clearing the temporary space, restarting the service reloads system resources and resets the queue.

Advertisement

Step 1

Click "Start" and type "Command" in the search box. Right-click "Command Prompt" in the search results and click "Run as Administrator."

Video of the Day

Step 2

Click "Yes" on the User Account Control dialog. This opens a command prompt with administrative access on your screen

Advertisement

Step 3

Type "Net Stop Spooler" at the prompt and press "Enter." This displays a status message that reports, "The printer spooler service is stopping." When the service has stopped, you will see a second message: "The print spooler service was stopped successfully."

Advertisement

Advertisement

Step 4

Type "Net Start Spooler" at the prompt and press "Enter." This displays the status message, "The printer spooler service is starting" message." Once the service has restarted, you will a second status message reporting, "The print spooler service was started successfully."

Step 5

Type "Exit" and press the "Enter" key to close the command prompt.

Video of the Day

Advertisement

Advertisement

references