Winflushprintjobs, Restart Jammed Print Jobs
In How To Deal With Stuck Print Jobs I explained how Windows users can recover from jammed print jobs manually either from the command line, by batch script or by restarting the Print Spooler service. Sometimes print jobs get jammed and cannot be removed from the print queue anymore. Even worse, they block all other print jobs that are send to the printer.
The free Open Source software Winflushprintjobs is basically an advanced version of the batch file that I posted in the stuck print jobs guide. The program is offered as an installer, portable version and source code. It ships with three different applications, a batch file called flush.bat a C program that has been specifically designed for Windows 95, 98 and ME, and a C program that deletes all print jobs on all local printers.
Most users will make use of the batch file to resolve the jammed printer issue. The batch script basically restarts the print spooler to resolve the issue. Restarting removes all print jobs from the queue including the stuck print job that cannot be deleted.
The C program on the other hand tries a different approach. Instead of resetting the print spooler, it tries to delete all print jobs on all local printers individually instead.
Both programs should be run from the command line if output is needed for verification, as no output is displayed if the programs are started with a double-click on the program icon.
Winflushprintjobs is a versatile program that's best suited for situations where multiple printers are connected to a single desktop PC. The program does not support network printers.
Windows users can download the portable software from the developer website. The program is offered as a 32-bit and 64-bit edition for all versions of the Microsoft Windows operating system.
Update: Download do not seem to work right now. You can download both releases from Sourceforge instead.
Update 2: The program does not seem to be available anymore. We suggest you take a look at alternatives such as Print Service Manager, Stalled Printer Jobs or a manual option.
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Oops… Page not found!
Try: http://sourceforge.net/projects/flushprintjobs/files/1.3/
Thanks, updated.
Sounds a useful automation of the basic batch file.
The website is up but both downloads give Page Not Found errors for me – so do the other Windows utilities on the site. Will try again later.
We have several HP printers that do this at work and i just use the following bat and have no trouble. Am I missing something this program would do different?
@Echo Off
Echo Stopping Print Spooler
net stop spooler
PING 1.1.1.1 -n 1 -w 500 >NUL
echo Deleting Spooled Jobs
echo.
del /q /a:-s c:\windows\system32\spool\printers\*.*
PING 1.1.1.1 -n 1 -w 500 >NUL
Echo Starting Print Spooler
Net start spooler
Pause
I had a force termination in there for spoolsv.exe for while. But it turned out to be unnecessary for my applications.
Never change a running system, if the batch works for you, keep it.