Have you ever had a local print job hang and were not able to cancel it in the print job queue? I have experienced this problem several times recently. It is quite annoying because usually one can’t print as long as the erroneous job is in the queue. I am guessing that your helpdesk often receives similar requests about this issue.

print-spooler

I never understood why Windows won’t allow me to remove a hanging print job. I understand that the operating system has to wait for the confirmation from the printer. But if the printer also hangs, the print job is stuck in the queue. In my opinion, this is a bug. It is an old Windows XP problem and it still hasn’t been resolved in Windows Vista. I haven’t experienced it yet in Windows 7 though.

One way to solve the problem is to reboot. In most cases the undeletable print job will disappear after the restart. But, I have also experienced cases when even a reboot wouldn’t remove the erroneous print job from the queue. However, there is a way that always works and is also faster.

First, you have to stop the Print Spooler Service, then you have to delete all files under C:\WINDOWS\System32\spool\PRINTERS. Once you’ve restarted the Spooler Service, you might have to press F5 in the print queue applet to make the hanging print job disappear. Of course, you will need admin’s rights for this procedure. If you require more detailed instructions, you should take a look at this post from the help desk geek.