Spoolsv.exe process is a system task running in the background of your system, if you use Windows 10. A lot of users are wondering about the number of services running in the background in their computers, and some of them raise suspicion because they don’t know what is the purpose of every exact service. In this post, you will see the explanation of spoolsv.exe task, and also the way to figure out that the process is malicious.

What is the spoolsv.exe process?

Spoolsv.exe is a parental process for Spooler SubSystem App, a Windows service that carries the responsibility for correct printers, scanners and fax work. This process manages the printing queue, and manages all connected devices. It also passes the information about printing devices to the programs which can create a file for print. Exactly, thanks to this service activity you are able to see the list of connected peripheric printing devices, and choose which fits you for printing this time.

Spooler SubSystem App also takes care of the configuration of the printers. In cases when you don’t have a separate desktop app for printer/fax controlling, the spoolsv.exe will offer you the functions for that purpose. Through this facility, you can see the information about the ink level or toner amount left, possible issues with hardware, and the common information about the device. Once again – this information may be available only when the device supports such a function.

How do I disable the spoolsv.exe process?

This process does not carry any vital functions for the system. If you do not use, and sure that will never use any printing devices, you can stop it. However, the stopping procedure (you could see it below) is not very easy, and you can get into the situation when there is no time to enable this thing. It consumes very small amounts of CPU/RAM capacity, so there is no critical need to stop it. However, the cases when it consumes a significant amount of the resources of your PC even without the use of a printer or fax are the clear cases of possible driver issues. Check the official Microsoft guide for solving the printer driver issue. Another possible source of this problem is malware presence.

The times when Windows processes may be disabled to increase the system performance have passed long ago. When Windows XP was the last actual OS version, computers were quite weak, and their upgrade was quite expensive, disabling several services could really make your PC faster without any significant problems. Nowadays, such tricks can make things even worse.

Press Win+R and type “services.msc” to open Services. In this system app, search for the Print Spooler service.

Click it with the right mouse button to call the context menu and press “Properties”. In the appeared window, you need to change the Startup type setting from Automatic (by default) to Disabled. After that action, you need to reboot your PC to see the changes. The service will not start anymore.