Printer spooler missing in services

I assume "WinSys32" means C:\Windows\System32 (if not, you have a non-standard installation of Windows and suggestions for fixing standard Windows systems probably will not work).

"Nothing I can find" covers a lot of territory.  Other than confirming the existence of spoolsv.exe and spoolss.dll, what have you tried?

What version of Windows do you have?

What happened to your system that caused the Print Spooler service to disappear?  Did you use a registry cleaner, tune-up utility, or the like?  If so and if the utility you used has an "undo" feature, did you use that?

Assuming that the Print Spooler service hasn't been missing for more than a week or so, did you use System Restore to go back to a point before the service went missing?

Thanks LemP

Yes on standard installation. I have tried restoring to previous point...no luck. I have tried a bunch of MANUAL

attempts as can be found on the internet, one of which verifies the existence of  spoolsv.exe, and spools.dll. I would never download any of the reg 'fixers' from the internet, which the vast majority of sites recommend. I have tried anything I could find (that I was capable of) that did not utilize a download of reg fixers which are more dangerous than useful. I even went to Microsoft web pages, and found very little useful. I have run virus and malware scans with

no problems found. As I mentioned I'm no geek (apologies to geeks) but I'm savvy enough to know my limitations so

I didn't try any of the suggestions showing registry or software manipulation and such. One thing I haven't tried is a system restore from the system disk that came with the laptop...it's lost (or discarded, I don't know).

  The system is Win 7 with regular updates, and it hasn't been connected to a printed for a couple of years.

The two solutions to this that seem to have the most success are (1) replacing the registry keys associated with the Print Spooler and (2) ensuring that spoolsv.exe and spoolss.dll are not corrupted.  I've also seen one site that suggested changing the NTFS permissions for spoolsv.exe and spoolss.dll as well as for the registry keys, but the suggested changes didn't make total sense.

The first thing you can do, which should have no adverse side effects, is to check for the integrity of your system files. 

Open an Elevated Command Prompt (click Start Orb, type cmd.exe, right-click on the link to cmd.exe and select "Run as administrator)

Type the following command and press Enter

    sfc /scannow

Report what happens at the end of the scan.

As far as the registry is concerned, before doing anything, create a manual System Restore point.  You can use this to restore the registry if you don't like what happens after you make changes.  http://www.dummies.com/computers/operating-systems/windows-7/how-to-create-a-system-restore-point-in-windows-7/

The usual method used to fix the registry is to run a *.reg file rather than running regedit.exe and making the changes manually.  Unfortunately, if you look at the contents of a *.reg file using, e.g., Notepad, it doesn't look exactly like the registry looks if you examine the registry using regedit.exe. 

I'm going to first include a number of screenshots from the registry of a working Windows 7 system so you can examine your registry using regedit.exe.  If your registry does not look like the screenshots, you have 3 options:  (1) make changes manually to conform to the screenshots, (2) run the *.reg file that I'll give you, or (3) report the differences between your registry and the screenshot for further, detailed instructions.

The registry key at issue is HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\services\Spooler and its two subkeys.  You can examine your registry by clicking Start, typing regedit.exe and pressing Enter.  Then start at the top and navigate to the key.

If your registry does not look like the screenshots, open a blank Notepad window, copy the text below from between the lines of asterisks, and paste into Notepad.  Use "Save as" to save the file.  Make sure that "Save as type" is set to "All files (*)" rather than "Text Documents (*.txt)" and give the file a name that ends with .reg (for example FixSpool.reg).  Save the file to an easy to find location, for example, your Desktop.

After the file is saved, right-click on it and select Merge.

*******************************************************************************

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\services\Spooler]
"DisplayName"="@%systemroot%\\system32\\spoolsv.exe,-1"
"Group"="SpoolerGroup"
"ImagePath"=hex(2):25,00,53,00,79,00,73,00,74,00,65,00,6d,00,52,00,6f,00,6f,00,\
  74,00,25,00,5c,00,53,00,79,00,73,00,74,00,65,00,6d,00,33,00,32,00,5c,00,73,\
  00,70,00,6f,00,6f,00,6c,00,73,00,76,00,2e,00,65,00,78,00,65,00,00,00
"Description"="@%systemroot%\\system32\\spoolsv.exe,-2"
"ObjectName"="LocalSystem"
"ErrorControl"=dword:00000001
"Start"=dword:00000002
"Type"=dword:00000110
"DependOnService"=hex(7):52,00,50,00,43,00,53,00,53,00,00,00,68,00,74,00,74,00,\
  70,00,00,00,00,00
"ServiceSidType"=dword:00000001
"RequiredPrivileges"=hex(7):53,00,65,00,54,00,63,00,62,00,50,00,72,00,69,00,76,\
  00,69,00,6c,00,65,00,67,00,65,00,00,00,53,00,65,00,49,00,6d,00,70,00,65,00,\
  72,00,73,00,6f,00,6e,00,61,00,74,00,65,00,50,00,72,00,69,00,76,00,69,00,6c,\
  00,65,00,67,00,65,00,00,00,53,00,65,00,41,00,75,00,64,00,69,00,74,00,50,00,\
  72,00,69,00,76,00,69,00,6c,00,65,00,67,00,65,00,00,00,53,00,65,00,43,00,68,\
  00,61,00,6e,00,67,00,65,00,4e,00,6f,00,74,00,69,00,66,00,79,00,50,00,72,00,\
  69,00,76,00,69,00,6c,00,65,00,67,00,65,00,00,00,53,00,65,00,41,00,73,00,73,\
  00,69,00,67,00,6e,00,50,00,72,00,69,00,6d,00,61,00,72,00,79,00,54,00,6f,00,\
  6b,00,65,00,6e,00,50,00,72,00,69,00,76,00,69,00,6c,00,65,00,67,00,65,00,00,\
  00,53,00,65,00,4c,00,6f,00,61,00,64,00,44,00,72,00,69,00,76,00,65,00,72,00,\
  50,00,72,00,69,00,76,00,69,00,6c,00,65,00,67,00,65,00,00,00,00,00
"FailureActions"=hex:80,51,01,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,03,00,00,00,14,00,00,\
  00,01,00,00,00,60,ea,00,00,01,00,00,00,60,ea,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\services\Spooler\Performance]
"Close"="PerfClose"
"Collect"="PerfCollect"
"Collect Timeout"=dword:000007d0
"Library"="winspool.drv"
"Object List"="1450"
"Open"="PerfOpen"
"Open Timeout"=dword:00000fa0

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\services\Spooler\Security]
"Security"=hex:01,00,14,80,78,00,00,00,84,00,00,00,14,00,00,00,30,00,00,00,02,\
  00,1c,00,01,00,00,00,02,80,14,00,ff,01,0f,00,01,01,00,00,00,00,00,01,00,00,\
  00,00,02,00,48,00,03,00,00,00,00,00,14,00,8d,01,02,00,01,01,00,00,00,00,00,\
  05,0b,00,00,00,00,00,18,00,ff,01,0f,00,01,02,00,00,00,00,00,05,20,00,00,00,\
  20,02,00,00,00,00,14,00,fd,01,02,00,01,01,00,00,00,00,00,05,12,00,00,00,01,\
  01,00,00,00,00,00,05,12,00,00,00,01,01,00,00,00,00,00,05,12,00,00,00

*********************************************************************************************************

Thanks LemP This solved the problem completely. I saw several sites

that recommended a similar fix without the explicit instructions and keystrokes.

Like I said fooling with the register scares the heck outa me which is why I didn't

try these things before. Your step by step explanation got me thru it.

Again Thanks

You're welcome.  Thanks for the feedback.

For the benefit of others, please click the Mark as Answer link below my earlier reply.