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Why does Windows Vista disable the Print Spooler by default?

S

ShawnD1

Lifer
Right now my house has 2 computers with Windows Vista. One has Home Basic that came preinstalled on a laptop, and the other has Business which I installed from scratch.

When I tried to install my HP LaserJet 1012 printer on the Home Basic computer, Windows gave an error saying the print spooler was not running, and that I should enable it then restart the computer. That sounded weird, so I went into the services list and saw that the Print Spooler was stopped. I hit start, tried to install the printer again, and it worked pefectly. It prints pages ok, the settings all work properly, and the drivers were plug & play. Next step is to share the printer and get it working on my other computers. When I tried to add the printer on my Vista Business computer, I got the exact same error. Print spooler not running, turn on, restart computer. I go into services, turn it on, then retry the process. It works perfect this time. The printer installed without issue, it has plug & play drivers, and the printed pages look good.

I'm glad the printer works, but why was this process so difficult? Why is the Print Spooler disabled by default? That means the only way to install a printer is to understand what a "service" is and how to turn them on, which I'm very certain most people do not know.
 
It certainly wasnt disabled by default on any of my Vista PCs, preinstalled or installed myself. In fact, this is the first time Ive heard of such a thing. If it really was the case, the net would be littered with people with the same problem, and I'm not finding that either. My only guess is that you ran some sort of tweaker that disabled it in the name of saving a few MB.
 
Same here - I have two Vista systems and they both access the same two printers via network. Spooling was not disabled nor an issue.
 
I'm glad the printer works, but why was this process so difficult? Why is the Print Spooler disabled by default? That means the only way to install a printer is to understand what a "service" is and how to turn them on, which I'm very certain most people do not know.
Click to expand...

Your experience is not normal. Not sure why that happened, but thats not supposed to.
 
It's just you. I've got Vista on 5 machines, 3 of which are my own, and have not had this problem.
 
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