How to Stop and Start the Print Spooler on Windows 10

For your personal home computer or any other computer on which you have administrative access, you can use the standard way described in option 1 below.

On a Windows 10 computer managed by MSB Computer Services, you may not have the administrative access required to make the required changes. In that case, please use option 2.

If you encounter any problems, please submit a request for Tech Support online or call Tech Support at 232-6616.

1. Standard way to stop (and restart) the Print Spooler on any Windows 10 Computer

• Click the Search Icon (magnifying glass) next the Start Menu in the lower left corner of your destop.
• Type "Servcies", and from the search results, open the Services application.
• Right click on "services" and choose to "run as an administrator" and enter your administrative credentials.
• In the Services window, scroll down to the Print Spooler service and click it to open its properties window.
• In the properties window, on the General tab, move to the second section titled Service status section and click the Stop button in order to stop the service.
  • If you receive an access denied error on a Computer managed by MSB Computer Services, please use option 2 below.
• Also change the startup type to Disabled to keep the service from automatically starting when the computer boots up.
• To restart the Spooler, change the startup type back to Automatic and then click the Start button.

2. How to stop (and restart) the Print Spooler on a Windows 10 Computer managed by MSB Computer Services

• Make sure you are connected to the UT VPN.
• Click the Search Icon (magnifying glass) next the Start Menu in the lower left corner of your desktop.
• Type "Software Center", and from the search results, open the Software Center application.
  • If you do not find Software Center on your computer, please submit a request for Tech Support online
• In Software Center, select the Applications tab, and then click the icon for MSB_PrintSpooler_Service.
  • If you do not see MSB_PrintSpooler_Service or something similar, please submit a request for Tech Support online
• In the MSB_PrintSpooler_Service Windows click Install to run the installer (the button will read Reinstall if you had run it once before already)
  • If you receive a message that the update failed, then please log out then log back in, reconnect to the VPN, and try once more.
• Each time you run this installer you will be prompted to DISABLE the Print Spooler (if it is currently running) or to ENABLE it (if it is currently stopped).