When you connect to more than 200 network printers that are hosted on a print server from a client computer that is running Windows 7 or Windows Server 2008 R2, the Print Spooler (Spoolsv.exe) process stops responding.

Security updates released on and after July 6, 2021 contain protections for a remote code execution vulnerability in the Windows Print Spooler service (spoolsv.exe) known as “PrintNightmare”, documented in CVE-2021-34527.

Fixes an issue in which the Print Spooler service does not work correctly in Windows 8.1, Windows RT 8.1, Windows Server 2012 R2, Windows 7, or Windows Server 2008 R2.

In this scenario, the CPU usage of the print spooler service (Spoolsv.exe) occasionally spikes for a while. Additionally, one of the following issues may occur:

Fix an issue in which a crash occurs in the spoolsv.exe process in Windows Server 2008 SP2.

Resolves a vulnerability in the Print Spooler service that could allow remote code execution if an attacker sends a specially crafted print request to a vulnerable machine with its Print Spooler interface exposed over RPC.

To request the hotfix package that applies to both Windows Vista and Windows Server 2008, just select the product that is listed on the page. No prerequisites are required. You must restart the computer after you apply this hotfix. This hotfix does not replace any other hotfixes.

You move the print spooler resource quickly between the two nodes several times. In this scenario, the print spooler service (Spoolsv.exe) that is called for this print job crashes. Additionally, an error message that resembles the following is logged in the Application log:

In this scenario, the print driver installation is not completed successfully. This issue occurs because of a deadlock in Spoolsv.exe. A supported hotfix is available from Microsoft. However, this hotfix is intended to correct only the problem that is described in this article.

Describes an update rollup for the printing core components that are included in Windows 7 and in Windows Server 2008 R2. The release date for this update is March 14, 2012.