Windows 2000 Print Spooler Does Not Delete Print Job Spool File

When you send a print job to a printer, the print spooler may not delete the spool file from the %Systemroot%\System32\Spool\Printers folder when the print job is completed, and the print spooler may repeatedly attempt to spool the print job.

The presence of the spool file does not prevent other print jobs from being spooled.

This behavior can occur if the print job's spool file has the read-only attribute.

To prevent this behavior from occurring, do not change the attributes of a spool file while it is in the %Systemroot%\System32\Spool\Printers folder.

To work around this behavior, remove the read-only attribute and then delete the spool file from the %Systemroot%\System32\Spool\Printers folder.

To remove the read-only attribute, right-click the spool file in Windows Explorer or My Computer, click Properties, click to clear the Read-only check box, and then click OK.

For information about how to delete files in Windows 2000, click Start, click Help, click the Index tab, type deleting, and then double-click the Deleting files topic.

This behavior is by design.

By default, spool files have only the archive attribute. The only way the spool file attributes can be changed is if a program changes the attributes while the file is in the %Systemroot%\System32\Spool\Printers folder, or if a user or administrator deliberately changes file attributes.