Trouble deleting or canceling a print job in Windows?

The glitch I had in printing was that I was unable to cancel a bad print job from the printing queue. It simply sat in front of the queue of print jobs without being printed or deleted. I am running Windows XP Professional, however, this experience may happen on all Windows operating systems.

The reason for this glitch is that the print manager was not able to delete the spooler file caching the print job. Therefore, the solution is to remove the print job manually.

1. Locate the print job under the print spooler directory. It’s usually under
%SystemRoot%\SYSTEM32\SPOOL\PRINTERS
where %SystemRoot% is the installation directory of Windows OS.

2. You can find the files according to time stamp and size, and try to delete them, however, it usually doesn’t work because there is a lock on these files by the “Print Spooler” service.

3. Click “Control Panel” -> “Administrative Tools” -> “Services” and find “Print Spooler”. The “Status” column shows “Started”. Right click the service to “Stop” it.

4. Leave the “Services” open and go back to the directory in Step 1 to delete those files.

5. Go back to the “Services” windows and right click the “Print Spooler” service to “Start” it again.

Now happy printing again!