Windows 10: How to clear print queue if the print spooler does not give me the option to start/stop

There is a print job stuck in the queue but the print folder is cleared out and the print spooler does not allow me to start/stop.

:)

 

Print Spooler Service Stopping

Drugged up on Pain Med's, exhausted from barely any sleep for four days and trying to type on a iPhnone. The USB driver and queue can end up stalling. Have you checked the print queue to see if there are jobs stalled or in the Print Spooler folder? Also grab the Process Explorer by Sysinternals from Microsoft.com. It will allow you to see the Sub Process, especially under the System process. See the following:

Clear Printer Spooler Files

• Click Start, type Services.msc in Search box or Click WIN+Q, type “Services.msc” in the open box.
• Services can be found under Computer Management on older operation system (Windows XP)
• Double-click Printer Spooler in the list.
• Click Stop and click OK.
• Open C:\Windows\System32\spool\PRINTERS.

I cannot find the tutorial, this is a more extensive way to check Print spooler stopping automatically on Windows 10, Windows 8 and 8.1 windowstricks.in

 

Reset and Clear Print Spooler in Windows 10


I use the same commands but wrapped in an AutoHotkey script which takes care of the elevation and provides an onscreen message:





Code:

Code:

; Based on https://autohotkey.com/boards/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=24987&hilit=print+queue #SingleInstance force ; Ensure only one instance at a time #NoTrayIcon ; Surpress the default Notification tray icon  ; Prompt to 'Run as Admin', i.e. show UAC dialog If Not A_IsAdmin {    Run *RunAs "%A_ScriptFullPath%"  ; Requires AHK v1.0.92.01+    ExitApp }  SplashImage,, W300 H120,, `nPlease wait...`n`nThe Printer queue is being cleared.`n`n This may take up to 10 seconds., Clear Printer Queue ; Show user message to inform what's happening Runwait, %comspec% /c "net stop spooler",, hide ; Stop the Print Spooler  ; Windows has its Print Queue located at the path used below. Runwait, %comspec% /c "del C:\Windows\System32\spool\printers\* /Q /F /S",, hide ;  Delete all files in the Print Queue (using [Q]uiet mode, [F]orce and clear [S]ub-folders switches)  Runwait, %comspec% /c "net start spooler",, hide ; Restart the Print Spooler splashimage, off ; Close the information message  ExitApp

I've added this as a right-click option using a REG file:




Code:

Code:

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00  [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Classes\Directory\background\shell\Clear Print Queue] "Icon"="C:\\Windows\\System32\\shell32.dll,222" "MUIVerb"="Clear Print Queue"  [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Classes\Directory\background\shell\Clear Print Queue\command] @="explorer /root,\"C:\\Support\\ClearPrinterQueue.ahk\""

Hope this helps...

 

Print queue full error - has anyone solved this?

I tried both options in the link and neither one worked... *Sad Thank you for the suggestion!