Thread: Printing Problem

I can't print any documents because there seems to be a document stuck in the queue for my printer. When I double-click on the printer icon in the Notification Area I can see that there is a document in the list, but I can't delete it. The document is still there even if the computer is rebooted, and meanwhile nothing is able to print.ls there a way to get rid of it?

This is a known problem in Windows XP (we haven't heard of it happening in Vista, but it may still be possible). Sometimes, when a print job fails, the job gets stuck in the queue and can't be removed, as you've seen. To clear it, you need to remove it manually from the queue, which isn't too hard. Click the Start button and click Run, then type net stop spooler and press Enter. Now click Start, then Run again, and type c: \ windows\sys tem32\spoo1\printers and press Enter. In the window that appears, select all the files and delete them.

If you can't see any files, click the Tools menu, then Folder Options. Click the View tab, scroll down to the entry 'Hidden files and folders' and select 'Show hidden files and folders', then scroll down further to 'Hide protected operating system fi les' and untick that. Click OK. Now delete all the files in the folder, and go back to the Folder Options to reverse the two changes we just made (change it back so that Windows does not show hidden files and that it hides protected operating system files). Go back to the Start button, click Run again and type 'net start spooler' without the quotes, press Enter, and you will be able to print.