How to Check Print Queue on This Computer

Using the Settings App

The Settings app is the quickest route in Windows 11. It lists every printer connected to your computer, and from there you can open the queue for any of them. The path is Bluetooth & devices › Printers & scanners.

1. Press Win+I to open Settings⚙️. The Settings window appears with a list of categories on the left.
2. Select Bluetooth🔷 & devices from the left-hand menu. The devices page opens on the right.

3. Click Printers & scanners. You will see every printer installed on the system, including virtual ones such as Microsoft Print to PDF.

4. Click the printer whose queue you want to inspect. Its settings page opens.
5. Click Open print queue. A separate window opens listing the active and pending documents for that device. If the list is empty, nothing is waiting to print.

Using the Windows Control Panel

The classic Control Panel gives you another way to reach the queue, and it is useful if the Settings app is not working. It uses the older Devices and Printers window, which is still present in Windows 11 Home and Pro.

1. Press Win+R to open the Run dialog box.
2. Type control printers into the Open field and press Enter. The Devices and Printers window opens.
3. Find your printer icon under the Printers section.
4. Right-click the printer icon and select See what’s printing from the context menu🖱️. The print queue window opens.

There is a faster method if you already know the printer’s name. Press Win+R, or type in the Start menu search box, then enter printui.exe /o /n “PRINTER-NAME” and press Enter. The queue for that printer opens directly, with no clicking through windows.

Replace PRINTER-NAME with the exact name of your printer. If you are not sure of the name, run Get-Printer in PowerShell. It lists every printer installed on the computer. The PowerShell section below explains how to open it.

Using the Taskbar Notification Area

While your computer is sending a document to the printer, Windows shows a temporary printer icon in the taskbar notification area. This is the fastest way to open the queue when a job is in progress. The icon disappears once the job finishes, so if you don’t see it, nothing is currently being sent.

1. Look at the notification area🔔 (the system tray) in the bottom-right corner of your screen, near the clock.
2. Click the upward-facing arrow if you do not see the printer symbol right away. This reveals the hidden icons.
3. Double-click the printer icon. The print queue window opens for the device that is processing the job.

Managing Print Jobs in the Queue

Once the queue window is open, you can clear errors, pause transmission, or cancel documents that are blocking your printer. A single stuck document at the front of the queue can hold up everything behind it, so removing it often gets printing moving again.

Before you start, note one requirement. You can cancel your own documents with a standard account. Clearing jobs that belong to other users, or restarting the Print Spooler service later in this guide, requires administrator rights.

1. Click the document in the queue to select it.
2. Click the Document menu at the top of the queue window.
3. Select Cancel to stop and delete the selected job, or select Pause to temporarily halt its transmission to the printer. A paused job stays in the list until you resume it from the same menu.
4. To clear everything at once, click the Printer menu at the top of the queue window and select Cancel All Documents. The list should empty within a few seconds.

Restarting the Print Spooler Service

Sometimes a job refuses to be deleted and its status stays on Deleting or never changes. In that case, restarting the Print Spooler service usually fixes the frozen queue. This service manages print jobs in the background, and restarting it requires administrator privileges. If you are signed in with a standard account, Windows will ask for an administrator password.

1. Press Win+X and select Task Manager📊 from the menu. You can also open Task Manager📊 directly by pressing Ctrl+Shift+Esc.
2. Click the Services tab on the left-hand side of Task Manager📊. It is the icon that looks like a puzzle piece.
3. Scroll down the alphabetical list and find the service named Spooler.
4. Right-click Spooler and select Restart. Approve the administrator prompt if it appears. The status should briefly change and then show Running again.
5. Open the print queue again and check whether the stuck jobs are gone. If they are still listed, cancel them now; the queue should respond once the service has restarted.

Restarting the service does not require a reboot, but any documents that were still printing may need to be sent again.

1. In Task Manager📊, on the Services tab, right-click Spooler and select Stop. Approve the administrator prompt if it appears. The status changes to Stopped.
2. Open File Explorer📁 and go to 📁C:\Windows\System32\spool\PRINTERScopy. Windows may ask for permission to continue; select Continue.
3. Delete the files inside the PRINTERS folder. Leave the folder itself in place.
4. Return to Task Manager📊, right-click Spooler, and select Start. The status shows Running again.
5. Open the print queue and confirm that it is empty.

Checking the Print Queue Using PowerShell

PowerShell lets you query the active print queue directly from the command line without opening any graphical windows. This is handy for quick checks, or when you manage more than one printer.

Open PowerShell as an administrator for any task that clears other users’ jobs, because Remove-PrintJob needs administrator rights in that case. Right-click the Start button and select Terminal (Admin). Approve the prompt that appears.

1. Right-click the Start button and select Terminal (or Windows PowerShell, depending on your build). Choose the Admin version if you plan to clear jobs. A command window opens.

2. Type Get-Printer and press Enter to list the printers on the computer. Note the exact name of the device you want to check.
3. Type the following command and press Enter to view jobs on a specific printer: Get-PrintJob -PrinterName "PRINTER-NAME". Replace PRINTER-NAME with your exact device name, as shown in Printers & scanners. The jobs appear as a list in the window, and an empty result means the queue is clear.
4. Type the following command and press Enter to cancel all jobs on that printer: Remove-PrintJob -PrinterName "PRINTER-NAME" -JobID ID-NUMBER. As with the graphical option, this cannot be undone. If you get an access denied message, close the window and reopen Terminal as an administrator.

What to do next

You should now be able to view active documents, clear stuck tasks, and manage printer communication on your Windows system. If problems persist, update your printer drivers, or remove the device and add it again through the Printers & scanners page in Settings.