Stop your print spool and clean it, too!
I’ve been plagued with jammed printer queues. Sometimes I try to cancel a 50 page mail merge or even a 2 page document and the printer just ceases. Until now, the method that has worked is to stop the print spooler, and then clear the print spool out and then restart the spooler, sometimes needing [...]
I’ve been plagued with jammed printer queues. Sometimes I try to cancel a 50 page mail merge or even a 2 page document and the printer just ceases. Until now, the method that has worked is to stop the print spooler, and then clear the print spool out and then restart the spooler, sometimes needing a restart of the computer. Not now!
Introducing my print spooler cleaner! It’s a simple batch file that takes all the steps necessary to unjam a printer queue and puts them at a double click of the mouse.
This can solve a lot of problems. I make no guarantees, though.
Download Print Flush for Windows (zip file, 418 bytes)
Directions
- Save somewhere where you can find it.
- Unzip the file to the desktop or something
- Double-click the file
- And try printing again!
About Brad
Brad Kovach is an award-winning web developer from Afton, Wyoming. In his spare time, he enjoys drumming on Rock Band, and playing with this website.
11 Responses to “Stop your print spool and clean it, too!”
Teressa
On December 18th, 2006
9:45 am
Thanks! You saved me a lot of time here! The user had a clogged queue and tried to delete the printer. I used this great batch file and the problem was solved in seconds, leaving me to reinstall her printer and she was good to go!
Teressa
Julian
On December 31st, 2006
1:45 pm
Is a god send! thanks very much.
Julian
On December 31st, 2006
1:48 pm
Spoke too soon – looked liked it had worked. Said it had deleted 9 jobs in the DOS window but when the printer queue was brought up again in windows they were still there! Arrhgh
Ryan
On February 26th, 2007
4:08 pm
Brad, you should charge for this batchfile, nothing much, like a dollar or something. You are the MAN. I can’t believe in all the iterations of Winwoes, they’ve not fixed this problem yet. Kudos to you! Thanks again.
ndc
On September 20th, 2007
8:01 pm
And another year onto this post and it’s still extremely useful. After manually stopping the spooler, explorer still wouldn’t allow me to delete the files in the printers folder. Voila! One batch file later and all is right with the world once more. Thanks!
Gord
On May 5th, 2008
5:31 pm
Wow! That’s awesome. I have been struggling with the queue on my Lexmark Z715 on the home network for weeks! Thanks!!
ZYZ
On July 28th, 2008
10:13 am
Thanks. Works here with a jammed .PDF files!
yip_e
On November 30th, 2008
3:46 pm
It’s already been said, but I’ll say it again. You just saved me a bunch of time. Thanks!
Tsafrir Ben Ari
On January 30th, 2010
1:22 pm
Hi There,
Just wanted to thank you for your help in cleaning an inerasable document out of the printer so it will start working again.
Best regards
Tsafrir
sandra
On February 1st, 2010
7:50 am
hi i really thought this was gonna work ,i (you) managed to get my printer job out of the queue but every time i try to print it goes back in queue but at least im one step closer to a soulution
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Gary
On August 27th, 2006
1:20 pm
Thanks! It cleared it right up. I just had to find a unzip utility since winzip I would have had to pay.