Print Spooler keeps stopping in Windows 11: how to fix it

Applies to: Windows 11 PCs where the Print Spooler service stops on its own, won’t stay running after a restart, or crashes as soon as you print or open printer settings. Windows 10 uses the same services and tools, though its Settings pages look different.

The Print Spooler is the Windows service that holds print jobs and hands them to the printer. According to Microsoft’s spooler troubleshooting article, it runs Windows components plus optional parts supplied by printer makers, and outdated drivers or print components can make it stop responding. That’s why the problem tends to follow a particular printer or driver rather than Windows as a whole.

If the spooler is fine and only one printer shows Offline, see our printer offline guide instead. If the printer shows Driver is unavailable, start with the driver unavailable guide and come back here if the spooler also keeps stopping.

Match your symptom

What you see	Likely cause	Start with
Spooler stops a few seconds after you start it	A damaged job in the spool folder	Fix 1
Spooler stops when you print or press Ctrl + P	A faulty or conflicting printer driver	Fix 2, Fix 3, Fix 4
“Spooler subsystem app has encountered a problem and needs to close”	A third-party driver or service	Fix 1, Fix 3
Stopped after installing printer or scanner software	Maker’s print processor or port monitor	Fix 6
Service is disabled or switches back to Disabled	Group Policy or a security tool	Fix 7
Several services misbehave, not just the spooler	Damaged Windows files	Fix 8

Fix 1: Clear the queue and the spool folder

A stuck or damaged job can crash the spooler again each time it reloads the queue. Microsoft’s spooler page starts by cancelling jobs: open Start > Settings > Bluetooth & devices > Printers & scanners, select the printer, choose Open print queue and cancel every job. If the queue won’t open because the service has already stopped, clear the job files directly:

1. Search for Services on the taskbar and open it.
2. Double-click Print Spooler, select Stop and then OK.
3. Open %WINDIR%\System32\spool\PRINTERS in File Explorer and delete the files inside it. Select Continue if Windows asks for administrator permission.
4. Back in Services, open Print Spooler again, set Startup type to Automatic, select Start and then OK.

Warning: delete only the files inside the PRINTERS folder, not the folder itself or anything else under spool. Any job waiting to print is lost. Microsoft’s article on spooler errors after a third-party driver install uses these same steps.

To restart the service later without the Services window, right-click Start, choose Terminal (Admin) and run:

Restart-Service -Name spooler

If the spooler now stays up until you print, the cause is most likely a driver, so continue with Fix 2. Our printer offline guide has the same queue steps if you only need to clear a stuck job.

Fix 2: Find the driver that crashes the spooler

Microsoft’s troubleshooting article suggests checking the event logs when the spooler won’t start or keeps failing. A crash normally leaves an error that names the file that failed, which tells you which driver to deal with:

1. Right-click Start and choose Event Viewer.
2. Go to Windows Logs > Application, then select Filter Current Log on the right.
3. Tick Error and type 1000 in the event ID box. Event 1000 from Application Error is the usual record of a program crash.
4. Look for entries where the faulting application is spoolsv.exe, the spooler’s own program. Note the Faulting module name.

If the faulting module is a file you don’t recognise, often with a printer maker’s name or initials in it, search for that file name in C:\Windows\System32\spool\drivers\x64\3 (the driver folder on most 64-bit PCs). The folder it sits in, or a quick search for the file name, usually shows which printer or software it belongs to. A Windows file such as ntdll.dll as the module is less helpful on its own; it often just reports where the crash surfaced, so go through Fixes 3 and 4 anyway.

Also check Windows Logs > System for errors from Service Control Manager that mention the Print Spooler. They show when and how often the service stopped, which helps you match the crashes to a particular printer or app.

Fix 3: Remove old and duplicate printer drivers

Microsoft names conflicting drivers as a common cause of spooler crashes. Every driver you’ve ever installed can still be loaded by the spooler, even for a printer you threw out years ago, so removing what you don’t use narrows things down quickly.

First, list the drivers installed on the PC. In Terminal (Admin), run:

Get-PrinterDriver | Select-Object Name, Manufacturer

Then remove the ones you don’t need:

1. In Settings > Bluetooth & devices > Printers & scanners, remove printers you no longer use, and any duplicate copies of your current printer (for example Copy 1).
2. Select Start, type Device Manager and open it. Expand Print queues or Printers and uninstall old or duplicate entries, as Microsoft’s spooler page suggests.
3. Restart the PC so the spooler lets go of the driver files.
4. To delete the driver packages themselves, use Print server properties as described in the driver package steps of our driver unavailable guide. Start with the driver named in Fix 2, if you found one.

Before you start: a driver package can be shared by several printers, and removing it stops all of them working until you reinstall a driver. Keep the built-in Microsoft entries such as Microsoft Print to PDF unless one of them is the faulting module.

Fix 4: Install a current driver or the Microsoft class driver

With the old drivers gone, install one clean driver for the printer you use. Microsoft’s spooler page recommends the latest driver for your model from the maker’s website; take it only from the maker’s official support site, not from driver updater tools or download sites. Pick the version for your Windows version and system type (64-bit or Arm).

Many makers offer a full software suite and a smaller basic driver. If the spooler crashed with the full suite, try the basic driver first, because the extra tools are often where the add-ons in Fix 6 come from.

Newer network and USB printers can also print with Windows’ built-in Microsoft IPP Class Driver, without any maker software. Our section on protected print mode and the IPP class driver explains when Windows picks that driver and what you might lose. It’s a sensible test when every maker driver seems to crash the spooler.

Fix 5: Run a faulty driver in isolation

Microsoft’s printer driver isolation documentation explains that Windows can load printer drivers in a process separate from the spooler, so that a driver fault can’t halt the print service. A driver can run in Shared mode (with other drivers, outside the spooler), Isolated mode (on its own) or None (inside the spooler). Microsoft says isolated mode is meant for drivers that fault often, leak memory or clash with other drivers.

Administrators set the mode per driver in the Print Management console, which is included with Pro, Enterprise and Education editions but not Home:

1. Press Windows key + R, type printmanagement.msc and press Enter.
2. Expand Print Servers, then your PC’s name, and select Drivers.
3. Right-click the driver you suspect, choose Set Driver Isolation and select Isolated.
4. Restart the Print Spooler and print a test page.

The menu wording can differ slightly between Windows versions. Not every driver supports isolation: Microsoft notes that a driver has to declare support for it, and a driver that doesn’t can still run inside the spooler. On a work PC, a domain administrator can also turn isolation off for all drivers by Group Policy. Isolation is a way to keep printing while you wait for a fixed driver, not a repair for the driver itself.

Fix 6: Check third-party print processors and monitors

Printer and scanner software sometimes adds its own print processor (which prepares jobs) or port monitor (which sends them to the device). These run inside the spooler too, so a broken one can stop the service even after the driver is fixed. Uninstalling the maker’s software from Settings > Apps > Installed apps is the safest way to remove them; restart afterwards and check whether the spooler stays up.

If you want to see what’s registered, you can look in the registry without changing anything:

Warning: editing the registry incorrectly can stop printing or cause wider problems. Look only, unless you know exactly which entry to remove, and before deleting anything, right-click the key and choose Export to save a backup you can double-click to restore. On a work PC, leave this to IT.

1. Press Windows key + R, type regedit, press Enter and select Yes.
2. Go to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Print\Environments\Windows x64\Print Processors. On a typical PC the only entry is winprint, Windows’ own print processor. Any other entry was added by printer or print-management software.
3. Go to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Print\Monitors. Windows’ own monitors are listed here alongside any added by printer software, so note names that clearly belong to a maker.
4. If the event in Fix 2 named a file that belongs to one of these entries, uninstall the software it came with. Delete a key by hand only as a last resort, after exporting it, with the Print Spooler stopped.

If printing then fails with a print processor error, set the printer back to winprint with the steps in our print processor guide.

Fix 7: Check security software and policy

Microsoft lists two more reasons the spooler may stop or refuse to run:

• Antivirus blocking spooler files. Microsoft’s troubleshooting article says security software can block files the spooler needs and suggests exclusions for the spool folder. Check your antivirus history for blocked or quarantined files under spool. Add an exclusion only for the spool folder and only if you trust the drivers in it; don’t turn protection off to test.
• Group Policy disabling the service. On a work or school PC, an administrator may have disabled the spooler on purpose as a security measure. If Startup type shows Disabled and changes back after you edit it, policy is the likely reason. Microsoft advises confirming with your security team before turning it back on, so contact IT rather than working around it.

In the Print Spooler’s properties in Services, the Dependencies tab lists the services it needs, such as Remote Procedure Call (RPC). If one of those is stopped or disabled, the spooler can’t start either; set it back to its default and restart the PC.

Fix 8: Repair Windows system files

Microsoft’s article mentions system instability and errors initializing the local print provider as another reason the spooler fails to start. If several Windows services misbehave, or the spooler crashes with no printer installed at all, run DISM and then System File Checker from an elevated terminal. Our guide on how to run sfc /scannow explains both commands and how to read the results. Restart before testing the spooler again.

Stopgap: let Windows restart the spooler

While you look for the cause, you can tell Windows to restart the service automatically. In Services, open Print Spooler, go to the Recovery tab and set First failure, Second failure and Subsequent failures to Restart the Service.

This hides the crash rather than fixing it, and any job being printed at the moment of the crash can still be lost. If the spooler restarts every few minutes, go back to Fixes 2 to 4; a driver that crashes that often needs replacing.

Known issues

As of November 2026, Microsoft’s Windows 11, version 25H2 known issues and notifications page, last updated on November 5, 2026, lists no printing or Print Spooler issue. Its recent entries cover Remote Desktop, a black screen after sign-in, AC-3 audio, domain trust and USB audio devices.

Known issues change, so check that page again if the spooler began stopping right after a Windows update. For connection problems that remain once the spooler is stable, Microsoft’s printer connection and printing problems page runs through the printer troubleshooter in Get Help and the other basic checks.

Related guides

• Printer offline in Windows 11: how to get it back online
• Printer driver is unavailable in Windows 11: how to fix it
• The Print Processor Does Not Exist: How to Fix It
• How to run sfc /scannow in Windows 11 and 10 (and read the results)
• Printer printing blank pages in Windows 11: how to fix it

Official sources

• Microsoft: Fix print spooler service not running errors in Windows
• Microsoft Learn: Printing issues caused by the Print Spooler service not running
• Microsoft Learn: Printer driver isolation