"The Print Subsystem Is Unavailable" Error Message After Installing Office 2000

After you install Microsoft Office 2000 in Windows 2000, you may receive the following error message in certain situations and custom installations when you attempt any printing action: Also, printers in the Printers folder may display an "Unable to connect" status.

This behavior occurs because Office 2000 Setup stops the print spooler at certain points during the installation process. When the fax driver for Microsoft Outlook 2000 is installed, the spooler is stopped and may not be restarted.

To resolve this issue, start the print spooler. To do so, type net start spooler at a command prompt, or start the service under Services in Computer Management.

Microsoft has confirmed that this is a problem in Microsoft Office 2000.