Occasionally I’ll run into a situation where I have to adjust the printers on a laptop. Delete one, add a new and changed one, basically bring the printer configuration up to date with what is currently present on the network.
Today I brought in my netbook, and I needed to print a few pages of a puppet cookbook. I kicked off the print job, and then realized that the printer configured no longer existed.
I deleted the print job, and went to the printers and faxes folder to see if I could leave the printer, configure a new IP address, and change the driver to the replacement printer. A very simple operation in UNIX, you can edit a file or go through a graphic interface to do it – transparent, nothing hidden from the administrator or even from the user. Windows refused first to delete the print job and then to adjust or change the printer, or delete any other obsolete printers.
Windows can’t do anything to change printers if the Print Spooler service has a print job ready to print and can’t print or delete that job.
The resolution was to first stop the Print Spooler service – go to Start, then Run and type in services.msc. Scroll down to the Print Spooler service, right-click on it and choose Stop
print spooler service - stop service
Don’t close the service window yet. Go into C:\WINDOWS\system32\spool\PRINTERS, and delete any files in this directory.
Go back to the services pane, restart the Print Spooler service (right-click and choose start).
Now your print job is deleted, you have the print spooler service running, you can delete printer, then add the correct printer.
—doug