Well all know printers only exists to cause pain. I manage a single windows server with 167 networked printers. Every so often jobs get stuck and I would have to manually go in, stop the print spooler service, clean out the print jobs folder and restart the service. Simple but just gets annoying after the 500th time. So here is my solution
The Batch File
Create a new file in notepad and save it as clear_print_jobs.bat (or whatever you would like) and paste the following code into it. Personally I like to store my scripts at the root of C:\_scripts on all my servers. It’s consistent and easy to navigate.
@echo off net stop spooler /yes ping -n 4 127.0.0.1 > nul del /Q /F C:\WINDOWS\system32\spool\PRINTERS*.* ping -n 4 127.0.0.1 > nul net start spooler echo
This script does the following: stops spooler service, deletes all job files in C:\WINDOWS\system32\spool\PRINTERS, then starts the spooler service.
Scheduled Task
Open up Task Scheduler. Right click “Task Scheduler Library” and select “Create Basic Task”
Name it. I called mine Restart and Clear Print Jobs
For the trigger lets do daily (pick which one works for you)
We want it to recur every 1 day. Select an hour that would be the least inconvenient for your staff.
Select “Start a program”
Sset the following
Program/script: cmd
Add arguments (optional): /c start “” “C:_Scripts\clear_print_jobs.bat”
Click done. Now in the list of jobs double click the job we just created. On the General tab we need to adjust the security options.
Change the user to a service account you use the job will run under, click “Run whether user is logged on or not” and check “Run with highest privileges“
That’s it! Enjoy the automation!
