My print spooler has suddenly stopped working on Win 7.

There are no printers visible in Devices and Printers though the total count is still there. When I go to Add a printer i receive the error:

Windows can't open Add Printer. The local print spooler service is not running. 
Please restart the spooler or restart the machine

And then when I look at the running services Spooler says:

Failed to Read Description. Error Code: 193

I don't know where to start!


Update:

When starting manually, I get this error:

Windows could not start the Spooler service on Local Computer.

Error 1058: The service cannot be started, either because it is disabled or because it has no enabled devices associated with it.
link|improve this question

78% accept rate
Is that error what you receive when you try to start it manually? – Kyle May 16 '11 at 17:56
@Kyle, added the error I get when manually starting to the question. Cheers – Alan Whitelaw May 16 '11 at 18:18
Make sure the service is set to login as local system, interact with the desktop, and that it is set to automatic. – Kyle May 16 '11 at 18:19
Yes @Kyle, it has all those settings, in fact all the start, stop... buttons are greyed out now – Alan Whitelaw May 16 '11 at 18:22
1  
Well everything is configured right maybe something is wrong with windows. Try running sfc/scannow in an elevated cmd window. – Kyle May 16 '11 at 18:37
show 2 more comments
feedback

Know someone who can answer? Share a link to this question via email, Google+, Twitter, or Facebook.

Your Answer

 
or
required, but never shown

Browse other questions tagged or ask your own question.