A job sits in the queue and won’t print. Or it says “Deleting” and never deletes. Or the printer looks fine, the PC looks fine, and nothing comes out. Nine times out of ten the Print Spooler — the Windows service that hands jobs to your printer — has hung.
The fix is to stop the spooler and start it again. You can do that by hand through Computer Management, digging down to Services, finding Print Spooler in a list of two hundred, and clicking Restart. We’ve walked customers through that on the phone more times than we can count.
These two tools do it in one click instead. Free, like our drivers. Take them.
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Print Spooler Tools
Windows 11 and Windows 10. No install. Administrator permission is required — Windows will ask, and that’s expected.
Two tools — pick the right one
| Tool | What it does | Use it when |
|---|---|---|
| Restart Print Spooler.bat | Stops the spooler, starts it again. Nothing is deleted — queued jobs survive and resume. | Try this first. The spooler is hung but your jobs are still worth printing. |
| Clear Print Queue and Restart Spooler.bat | Stops the spooler, deletes everything in the spool folder, restarts it. | A phantom job won’t clear no matter what, or the queue itself is corrupted. This permanently deletes every waiting job. |
Start gentle. The plain restart fixes most cases and costs you nothing if it doesn’t. Only reach for the queue-clear when a job refuses to die — and know that when you do, everything waiting to print goes with it. The tool asks you to confirm before it touches anything.
How to use them
Step 1 — Unzip. Right-click the download, choose Extract All, and pick anywhere convenient. You’ll get two files.
Step 2 — Double-click the one you need. Windows asks for administrator permission. Say yes. The tool shows you what it’s doing as it goes, then tells you when it’s done.
Keep them on the Desktop. If the spooler hangs once, it will hang again.
Two warnings Windows will show you — both are normal
1. “Unknown Publisher.” This appears on every unsigned script downloaded from the internet. It isn’t a virus detection — it’s Windows saying it can’t confirm who wrote the file. Confirming that requires a code-signing certificate, an annual expense we’re not going to pass along to you over two small utilities we’re giving away.
2. The User Account Control prompt. Stopping and starting a Windows service genuinely requires administrator rights — there’s no way around it, and any tool that claims otherwise isn’t doing what it says. The tools ask Windows for permission the normal way, and you’ll see the standard UAC box.
Rather than ask you to take our word for it: right-click either file, choose Edit, and read it in Notepad before you run it. They’re a few lines each, in plain English, with our name and terms at the top. We’d rather you check.
Free, and provided as-is
These tools are provided free of charge by All For Mailers, Inc. as a courtesy to the mailing community — customers and non-customers alike. They come with no warranty of any kind, express or implied, and you use them at your own risk. All For Mailers is not liable for any loss, damage, or downtime arising from their use. Clearing the print queue permanently deletes any jobs waiting to print.
We are not affiliated with or endorsed by Microsoft. Windows is a trademark of Microsoft Corporation.
Questions about these tools?
Email support@allformailers.com. These are free utilities rather than supported products, so we handle questions about them by email — but we do read them.
Machine still not printing?
That’s a different problem — and it’s the kind we solve every day. If the spooler restarts cleanly but your address printer or inkjet imager still won’t cooperate, that’s worth a phone call.
The first 10 minutes on the phone are free. Beyond that, technical support is billed at our published rates, which you can read in full on our support page — no surprises, no meter running before you know about it.
Call 866-430-2874 · Request Parts or Service → · Support & Service rates →
Related: Open the classic Devices and Printers folder in Windows 11 → · Printer drivers for your mailing equipment →
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Frequently asked questions
Why do print jobs get stuck in the queue?
Usually the Print Spooler service has hung — often after a printer went offline mid-job, a driver misbehaved, or a job was cancelled partway through. The spooler keeps holding a job it can no longer send, and everything behind it waits. Restarting the service clears the jam.
What is the difference between the two tools?
Restart Print Spooler stops and starts the service without deleting anything, so queued jobs survive. Clear Print Queue and Restart Spooler also empties the spool folder, which permanently deletes every waiting job. Try the plain restart first.
Do I need administrator rights?
Yes. Stopping and starting a Windows service requires it. The tools request permission automatically, so you will see a User Account Control prompt — just approve it. If you are on a managed work computer without administrator access, your IT department will need to run it.
Will this delete my print jobs?
Only the queue-clearing tool does, and it asks you to confirm before it starts. The plain restart leaves your queue alone.
Is this safe? Windows says the publisher is unknown.
That warning appears on any unsigned script downloaded from the internet and is not a malware detection. These tools use the standard Windows commands to stop and start the Print Spooler. Right-click either file and choose Edit to read the whole thing in Notepad before running it.
Does this work on Windows 10?
Yes. The Print Spooler service works the same way on Windows 10 and Windows 11.
Is this really free?
Yes — free, no signup, no email required, same as our driver packages. Share them with anyone who needs them.