Printers vanished and can't add printer

<p><br />If the Print Spooler service fails when printing or when Windows starts or it can not be restarted, the usual reason is that one or more printer drivers is defective. The simplest way to resolve this is to remove all the drivers and reinstall them again.<br /> <p><br />If the Print Spooler service is not running, the Printers and Faxes folder will be empty and you can not use it to remove (or add) printers or printer drivers. <br /> <p><br /><b>Resolution:</b><br /> <p> <br /> <p><b>Windows XP:</b><br /> <br /> <p>If the Print Spooler service is operational:<br /> <p>1.<span> </span><span>Open the <b>Printers and Faxes</b> folder, Start-&gt;Printers and Faxes.</span><br /> <p>2.<span> </span><span>Delete all of the <span>printers</span></span> <br /> <p>3.<span> </span><span>Click <b>File</b>, Server Properties</span> <br /> <p>4.<span> </span><span>Select the <b>Drivers</b> tab</span> <br /> <p>5.<span> </span><span>For each entry:</span> <br /> <p>a.<span> </span><span>Select the entry</span> <br /> <p>b.<span> </span><span>Click Remove</span> <br /> <p>If the Print Spooler service is not operational:<br /> <p>6.<span> </span><span>Open regedit Start-&gt;Run and type regedit.</span> <br /> <p>7.<span> </span><span>navigate to <b>HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Print\Environments\Windows NT x86\Drivers</b></span> <span>Under this key, there will be the keys Version-2 and Version-3 (one or the other of these may be absent - not a problem) the sub-keys under these contain the printer driver configuration information. Delete all the sub-keys inside Version-2 and Version-3, but <i>not</i> these keys themselves</span><br /> <p>8.<span> </span><span>Open a Command Prompt window</span> <br /> <p>9.<span> </span><span>Type the commands<br /> <span><b>net stop spooler</b></span><i><br /> </i><span><b>net start spooler</b></span></span> <br /> <p>10.<span> </span><span>Open Windows Explorer</span> <br /> <p>11.<span> </span><span>Navigate to <b>%systemroot%\system32\spool\printers\</b> and delete any files there. By default, this is where the <span>print spooler</span> stores print files.</span> <br /> <p>12.<span> </span><span>Navigate to <b>%systemroot%\system32\spool\drivers\w32x86</b>. Inside w32x86, there will be folders with the names 2 and 3 (one or more of these may be absent - not a problem) delete all of the files and sub-folders in each of the 2 and 3 folders, but not the folders themselves. Inside w32x86, there may be other folders with names starting with "hewlett_packard", "hphp" (ex. for HP printers) or something else; delete these folders also</span><br /> <p><span>13. </span><span>Restart the <span>print spooler</span> (see steps 8 and 9 above)</span><span> </span><br /> <p><b>Windows 7:</b><br /> <ol> <li> Go to <b>services.msc</b> -&gt; stop the printer spooler service. <li> Get into windows /system32/spool. <li> Find folder named printer and delete the contents of it. <li> Restart the printer spooler service, check for printing. <li> Restart the computer and check it again.</li></ol> <p><span> </span>OR<br /> <p>cmd<span> </span>-- &gt; net stop spooler<br /> <p>del /q /f /s "%systemroot%\System32\Spool\PRINTERS \*.*"<br /> <p>net start spooler