Hi, I upgraded PDF Creator and there was some installation issues. After that all installed printers were lost. When we try to install new printer we get the following error. "Windows can't open add printer. The local print spooler service is not running. please restart spooler or restart the system." BUT there is no Print Spooler service in Services!! tried online checking available with Windows7, ran sfc /scannow, results are all fine, no issues, just that printer cannot be installed. Please advise. regards Ananth.

You may need to clear the printing sub system. Please follow the steps below. Step 1 ====== Start Windows Explorer, and then rename all files and folders in the following two folders: c:\windows\system32\spool\drivers\w32x86 To rename a file, we can right click the file and select Rename. Step 2 ====== 1. Click Start, type REGEDIT in the Start Search Bar, and then press ENTER. 2. Navigate to and then click the following registry key: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Print\Environment\Windows NT x86 View the list of subkeys. There should be only the following subkeys: Drivers Print Processors If there are any keys other than those listed above, follow these steps: a. On the File menu, click Export. b. In the File Name box, type a descriptive name for this key -- for example, type WindowsNTx86regkey -- and then click Save to save it to your local Desktop. We can use this backup of the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Print\Environment\Windows NT x86 registry key to restore the key if you experience any problems after you complete this procedure. c. Delete all keys other than Drivers and Print Processors. Step 3 ====== Navigate to and click the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Print\Monitors registry key. View the list of subkeys. There should be only the following subkeys: BJ Language Monitor Local Port Microsoft Document Imaging Writer Monitor Microsoft Shared Fax Monitor Standard TCP/IP Port USB Monitor WSD Port If there are any keys other than those listed in above, follow these steps to delete them: a. On the File menu, click Export. b. In the File Name box, type a descriptive name for this key -- for example, type Monitorsregkey -- and then click Save to save it to your local Desktop. We can use this backup of the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Print\Monitors registry key to restore the key if you experience any problems after you complete this procedure. c. Delete all keys other than the 5 listed above. Step 4. Disconnect the printer cable from the computer, and then restart the computer. Then install printer drivers again.Arthur Xie - MSFT

Hi Arthur, really sorry for the very late reply, I completely forgot I had posted here... deeply sorry about that. Did all the steps, but still problem is there. May a complete reinstallation of the OS is needed to solve this problem. We tried sfc /scanow.. it didn't return any errors. We tried online fixing... returned no errors. Its a Windows 7 Enterprise edition. we have another issue with the system as it takes some 5 minutes to connect to the network after restart! not really sure we want to move to 7 after all!! regards Ananth.

"Windows can't open add printer. The local print spooler service is not running. please restart spooler or restart the system." BUT there is no Print Spooler service in Services!! Create a System Restore Point. Then, import the following registry key from a working Windows 7 installation: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\services\Spooler Restart the computer and verify the Print Spooler service is started. Or, Copy and paste the following below into Notepad and save as a .reg file (save with the .reg extension). It's the default key from a working Windows 7 64-bit installation but can also be used in Windows 7 32-bit as the key is the same. Then double-click the saved .reg file, add to the registry, and restart the computer. Then verify that the Printer Spooler service is started. Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00 [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\services\Spooler] "DisplayName"="@%systemroot%\\system32\\spoolsv.exe,-1" "Group"="SpoolerGroup" "Description"="@%systemroot%\\system32\\spoolsv.exe,-2" "ObjectName"="LocalSystem" "ErrorControl"=dword:00000001 "Start"=dword:00000002 "Type"=dword:00000110 "DependOnService"=hex(7):52,00,50,00,43,00,53,00,53,00,00,00,68,00,74,00,74,00,\ 70,00,00,00,00,00 "ServiceSidType"=dword:00000001 "RequiredPrivileges"=hex(7):53,00,65,00,54,00,63,00,62,00,50,00,72,00,69,00,76,\ 00,69,00,6c,00,65,00,67,00,65,00,00,00,53,00,65,00,49,00,6d,00,70,00,65,00,\ 72,00,73,00,6f,00,6e,00,61,00,74,00,65,00,50,00,72,00,69,00,76,00,69,00,6c,\ 00,65,00,67,00,65,00,00,00,53,00,65,00,41,00,75,00,64,00,69,00,74,00,50,00,\ 72,00,69,00,76,00,69,00,6c,00,65,00,67,00,65,00,00,00,53,00,65,00,43,00,68,\ 00,61,00,6e,00,67,00,65,00,4e,00,6f,00,74,00,69,00,66,00,79,00,50,00,72,00,\ 69,00,76,00,69,00,6c,00,65,00,67,00,65,00,00,00,53,00,65,00,41,00,73,00,73,\ 00,69,00,67,00,6e,00,50,00,72,00,69,00,6d,00,61,00,72,00,79,00,54,00,6f,00,\ 6b,00,65,00,6e,00,50,00,72,00,69,00,76,00,69,00,6c,00,65,00,67,00,65,00,00,\ 00,53,00,65,00,4c,00,6f,00,61,00,64,00,44,00,72,00,69,00,76,00,65,00,72,00,\ 50,00,72,00,69,00,76,00,69,00,6c,00,65,00,67,00,65,00,00,00,00,00 "FailureActions"=hex:80,51,01,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,03,00,00,00,14,00,00,\ 00,01,00,00,00,60,ea,00,00,01,00,00,00,60,ea,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00 "ImagePath"=hex(2):25,00,53,00,79,00,73,00,74,00,65,00,6d,00,52,00,6f,00,6f,00,\ 74,00,25,00,5c,00,53,00,79,00,73,00,74,00,65,00,6d,00,33,00,32,00,5c,00,73,\ 00,70,00,6f,00,6f,00,6c,00,73,00,76,00,2e,00,65,00,78,00,65,00,00,00 [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\services\Spooler\Performance] "Close"="PerfClose" "Collect"="PerfCollect" "Collect Timeout"=dword:000007d0 "Library"="winspool.drv" "Object List"="1450" "Open"="PerfOpen" "Open Timeout"=dword:00000fa0 [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\services\Spooler\Security] "Security"=hex:01,00,14,80,78,00,00,00,84,00,00,00,14,00,00,00,30,00,00,00,02,\ 00,1c,00,01,00,00,00,02,80,14,00,ff,01,0f,00,01,01,00,00,00,00,00,01,00,00,\ 00,00,02,00,48,00,03,00,00,00,00,00,14,00,8d,01,02,00,01,01,00,00,00,00,00,\ 05,0b,00,00,00,00,00,18,00,ff,01,0f,00,01,02,00,00,00,00,00,05,20,00,00,00,\ 20,02,00,00,00,00,14,00,fd,01,02,00,01,01,00,00,00,00,00,05,12,00,00,00,01,\ 01,00,00,00,00,00,05,12,00,00,00,01,01,00,00,00,00,00,05,12,00,00,00

Didn't work... hmm... going for a repair now... will post if its fine. Thanks Auggy for the help...

Finally this worked, thanks to Burr Walnut!!! BurrWalnut Already Voted Try running a Windows upgrade repair reinstall. This gives you a new OS without changing settings, files, folders, other programs and the like. Insert the Windows DVD and if Windows automatically detects the DVD, click Install now. If Windows does not detect the DVD, navigate to the DVD drive and double-click setup.exe. Accept the license and when you see the screen ‘Which type of installation do you want?’, click Upgrade to upgrade the current operating system, then follow the screen prompts. Good luck.