Change the Print Spooler Directory

The default Print Spooler directory is located in system32/spool/PRINTERS on the system partition. Changing that directory to another one can have several positive side effects. It could speed up printing if you move it to another hard drive which normally reduces the slow down users experience when printing documents. This is basically the same effect that you experience when moving the Pagefile to another hard drive.

Changing the Print Spooler directory is an easy task. It can be done by changing the default directory in the Windows Registry. Press Windows R, type regedit and hit enter. This loads the Registry editor. Navigate to the key HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Print\Printers and change the value of the key DefaultSpoolDirectory from C:\Windows\system32\spool\printers to another directory of your choice.

The setting can be alternatively changed in the Control Panel. Double-Click Printers and Faxes. Click on file, Server Properties and change tot he Advanced tab. Type the path of the new directory in the Spool Folder box.

It is furthermore possible to change the directory for a selected printer instead. To do that click on the key of the specific printer in the Registry (subdirectory of Printers) and check if the value SpoolDirectory exists.

If the value does not exist create it by right-clicking in the right pane and creating a new REG_SZ value. Name it SpoolDirectory. Now double-click that value and add the path that you want to assign to this printer.

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Author: Martin Brinkmann, Sunday February 24, 2008 -
Tags:printer, registry tips, spooler, Windows, windows registry, windows tips

Responses so far:

1. tiko says:

   May 11, 2011 at 10:10 am

   I found an easy to follow guide (with screenshots) here:

   http://cyberst0rm.blogspot.com/2011/05/how-to-change-location-of-print-spooler.html

   Reply