Ever since installing 8.1 about two weeks ago I have been unable to do any printing whatsoever. Furthermore, all the printers that I already had installed on my machine disappeared from the Devices and Printers folder (although I did find them eventually).

The exact error I get is "Windows cannot print due to a problem with the current printer setup.", with additional notes "This error can appear if a default printer has not been designated or if the application is unable to locate an existing default printer. To correct this problem, try one of the following in Microsoft Windows:
If a printer or printer settings is not available after you click the File tab, and then click Print, add a printer.
If the application cannot find an existing printer that is already installed, set the printer as the default printer.
If a default printer is installed but the application is unable to use it, uninstall the printer driver, and then install the latest version of the printer driver.
If the printer is on a print server, make sure the printer is available, the network is functioning, the server is not stalled, the printer is not out of paper, or the printer is not suspended by the administrator. Printing issues associated with a network printer are best handled by your local network administrator.
For more information about setting up and troubleshooting printer connections, see Windows Help and Support. (Click the Start button, and then click Help and Support.)".

Although my printers are all network printers, I am sure it's not a network issue, as I cannot print either on my home network or on my work network. Also, if I try to use my PDF converter, doPDF, which creates PDFs by 'printing' them through a print queue of its own, I get the same error message as though I was trying to print to a real printer.

My machine is a Lenovo G500s running an x64 system on an Intel Core i5-3230M CPU @ 2.60 GHz, if that's relevant. My network printers are a Brother MFC-J6710DW, a HP Color LaserJet CP5225, and an HP Officejet Pro 8000 A809.

I have gone into the Services menu; both the Print Spooler and its dependencies DCOM Service Process Launcher and RPC Endpoint Mapper are "Running" and set to Automatic Start.

I'm out of ideas on how to fix this issue. I've been watching another thread (http://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/windows/en-US/d875ab83-1b17-4a28-8738-e67249a2bdfd/cannot-print-after-update-to-81-printers-gone-print-spooler-keeps-stopping-cannot-add?forum=w8itprohardware) in hopes someone over there will solve the problem for me, but it appears they can't fix the issue either. Can I get a little help please?

It sounds like the spooler service is starting, then fails when you attempt some print activity.  Is there anything in the Application event log indicating the service failure?

Can you get a list of print drivers installed on your machine from Powershell?

Open a powershell window and type

get-printerdriver *

If the spooler service is no longer running, you will get this error

get-printerdriver : An error occurred while performing the specified operation.

When I ran powershell to get the list of print drivers on my machine, it created that list without making any errors.

On a more positive note, I tested my printing setup again yesterday, and now my machine has decided to start printing things again. I'm glad that the issue is apparently fixed, but also a bit put out because I have no idea what caused it to be fixed, and therefore cannot leave helpful advice on this forum for anyone else suffering from printing problems in 8.1. Thanks for your help anyway, though!

Using my install cd I uninstalled my printer. After uninstalling my printer, I restarted the computer and reinstalled the printer again, using the cd. It works fine now.