Print Spooler Service Keeps Stopping in Windows 7

There have been a couple of instances at work of computers losing the ability to print. Not only this but they can not add or remove printers as well. The error that comes up may be familiar to some of you.

So we tried to restart the print spooler service, which it did without error, and then go back and add the printer again, and guess what... the same error popped up. Dont you just love computers.

After quite a lot of investigating we found the cause. In the registry there are duplicate enteries for the same driver. If you delete one of them the print spooler will be fine.

Note: Making changes to the registry can mess up your computer. Make sure you take a full backup of the Key you are changing before you make the changes!

So first, open command prompt with Admin priviledges and type in

net stop spooler

This will make sure that the print spooler service is stopped.

Next open the registry up and go to
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Print\Environments\Windows NT x86\Drivers\Version-3

Under this you will see a list of all the drivers currently installed on your system. If there are any duplicates you can just delete one of them.

Now go back to the Print key and below it you will see a Printers key. Under this are all the printers that are installed. Again if there are any duplicates, just delete one of them.

Now close the registry and go back to your command prompt. Type in

net start spooler

And this should have fixed your problem.