I notice that in in Windows XP, Microsoft wisely seems to have configured
the print spooler service to restart if it crashes.

Unfortunately, I've still got about 1000 Windows 2000 PCs on my domain, and
it seems like when I update a (or more correctly, install a new) driver on
my Windows 2003 Print Server, it likes to update EVERY network printer on
EVERY PC, even if the models and drivers aren't even the same (thank you
very little, HP).

When that happens, about 10% of the PCs crash their spooler service, until
they think they've updated ALL of their printer drivers (even though, again,
their 9050, 4600, and 4000 drivers didn't change a wink just because some
a--hole started purchasing P4015's and now we have yet another crapass HP
driver on our server).

Anyone know of any way to change the spooler service to recover
automatically via GPO or registry hack? I know it's a band-aid (I'm thinking
of reverting to only using HP 4 drivers...seriously) - but it would really
help.

Thanks,
Bruce

use the sc (service control) command line tool in XP+


sc \\remotemachine failure spooler reset= 143000 actions= restart/60000


I tried this against Win2k and it set the service to restart after 1 minute
on failure.

I did not find sc.exe on Win2k.




--
Alan Morris
Windows Printing Team
Search the Microsoft Knowledge Base here:
http://support.microsoft.com/search/?adv=1

This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.

"Bruce Lautenschlager" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:%23%(E-Mail Removed)...
>I notice that in in Windows XP, Microsoft wisely seems to have configured
>the print spooler service to restart if it crashes.
>
> Unfortunately, I've still got about 1000 Windows 2000 PCs on my domain,
> and it seems like when I update a (or more correctly, install a new)
> driver on my Windows 2003 Print Server, it likes to update EVERY network
> printer on EVERY PC, even if the models and drivers aren't even the same
> (thank you very little, HP).
>
> When that happens, about 10% of the PCs crash their spooler service, until
> they think they've updated ALL of their printer drivers (even though,
> again, their 9050, 4600, and 4000 drivers didn't change a wink just
> because some a--hole started purchasing P4015's and now we have yet
> another crapass HP driver on our server).
>
> Anyone know of any way to change the spooler service to recover
> automatically via GPO or registry hack? I know it's a band-aid (I'm
> thinking of reverting to only using HP 4 drivers...seriously) - but it
> would really help.
>
> Thanks,
> Bruce
>

Great - thanks very much (once again), Alan.

Bruce

"Alan Morris [MSFT]" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:(E-Mail Removed)...
> use the sc (service control) command line tool in XP+
>
>
> sc \\remotemachine failure spooler reset= 143000 actions= restart/60000
>
>
> I tried this against Win2k and it set the service to restart after 1
minute
> on failure.
>
> I did not find sc.exe on Win2k.
>
>
>
>
> --
> Alan Morris
> Windows Printing Team
> Search the Microsoft Knowledge Base here:
> http://support.microsoft.com/search/?adv=1
>
> This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no
rights.
>
> "Bruce Lautenschlager" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
> news:%23%(E-Mail Removed)...
> >I notice that in in Windows XP, Microsoft wisely seems to have configured
> >the print spooler service to restart if it crashes.
> >
> > Unfortunately, I've still got about 1000 Windows 2000 PCs on my domain,
> > and it seems like when I update a (or more correctly, install a new)
> > driver on my Windows 2003 Print Server, it likes to update EVERY network
> > printer on EVERY PC, even if the models and drivers aren't even the same
> > (thank you very little, HP).
> >
> > When that happens, about 10% of the PCs crash their spooler service,
until
> > they think they've updated ALL of their printer drivers (even though,
> > again, their 9050, 4600, and 4000 drivers didn't change a wink just
> > because some a--hole started purchasing P4015's and now we have yet
> > another crapass HP driver on our server).
> >
> > Anyone know of any way to change the spooler service to recover
> > automatically via GPO or registry hack? I know it's a band-aid (I'm
> > thinking of reverting to only using HP 4 drivers...seriously) - but it
> > would really help.
> >
> > Thanks,
> > Bruce
> >
>
>

cool. I did not realize you were a repeat offender.

there is also a relatively new general server group for other server centric
queries
microsoft.public.windows.server.general.

--
Alan Morris
Windows Printing Team
Search the Microsoft Knowledge Base here:
http://support.microsoft.com/search/?adv=1

This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.

"Bruce Lautenschlager" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:%(E-Mail Removed)...
> Great - thanks very much (once again), Alan.
>
> Bruce
>
> "Alan Morris [MSFT]" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
> news:(E-Mail Removed)...
>> use the sc (service control) command line tool in XP+
>>
>>
>> sc \\remotemachine failure spooler reset= 143000 actions= restart/60000
>>
>>
>> I tried this against Win2k and it set the service to restart after 1
> minute
>> on failure.
>>
>> I did not find sc.exe on Win2k.
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> --
>> Alan Morris
>> Windows Printing Team
>> Search the Microsoft Knowledge Base here:
>> http://support.microsoft.com/search/?adv=1
>>
>> This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no
> rights.
>>
>> "Bruce Lautenschlager" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
>> news:%23%(E-Mail Removed)...
>> >I notice that in in Windows XP, Microsoft wisely seems to have
>> >configured
>> >the print spooler service to restart if it crashes.
>> >
>> > Unfortunately, I've still got about 1000 Windows 2000 PCs on my domain,
>> > and it seems like when I update a (or more correctly, install a new)
>> > driver on my Windows 2003 Print Server, it likes to update EVERY
>> > network
>> > printer on EVERY PC, even if the models and drivers aren't even the
>> > same
>> > (thank you very little, HP).
>> >
>> > When that happens, about 10% of the PCs crash their spooler service,
> until
>> > they think they've updated ALL of their printer drivers (even though,
>> > again, their 9050, 4600, and 4000 drivers didn't change a wink just
>> > because some a--hole started purchasing P4015's and now we have yet
>> > another crapass HP driver on our server).
>> >
>> > Anyone know of any way to change the spooler service to recover
>> > automatically via GPO or registry hack? I know it's a band-aid (I'm
>> > thinking of reverting to only using HP 4 drivers...seriously) - but it
>> > would really help.
>> >
>> > Thanks,
>> > Bruce
>> >
>>
>>
>
>

But when I think of spoolers, I think of you...

And fortunately, SC.EXE is part of the Win2k Resource Kit, which is on all
of our images...

Thanks again,
Bruce

"Alan Morris [MSFT]" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:(E-Mail Removed)...
> cool. I did not realize you were a repeat offender.
>
> there is also a relatively new general server group for other server
> centric queries
> microsoft.public.windows.server.general.
>
> --
> Alan Morris
> Windows Printing Team
> Search the Microsoft Knowledge Base here:
> http://support.microsoft.com/search/?adv=1
>
> This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no
> rights.
>
> "Bruce Lautenschlager" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
> news:%(E-Mail Removed)...
>> Great - thanks very much (once again), Alan.
>>
>> Bruce
>>
>> "Alan Morris [MSFT]" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
>> news:(E-Mail Removed)...
>>> use the sc (service control) command line tool in XP+
>>>
>>>
>>> sc \\remotemachine failure spooler reset= 143000 actions= restart/60000
>>>
>>>
>>> I tried this against Win2k and it set the service to restart after 1
>> minute
>>> on failure.
>>>
>>> I did not find sc.exe on Win2k.
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> --
>>> Alan Morris
>>> Windows Printing Team
>>> Search the Microsoft Knowledge Base here:
>>> http://support.microsoft.com/search/?adv=1
>>>
>>> This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no
>> rights.
>>>
>>> "Bruce Lautenschlager" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
>>> news:%23%(E-Mail Removed)...
>>> >I notice that in in Windows XP, Microsoft wisely seems to have
>>> >configured
>>> >the print spooler service to restart if it crashes.
>>> >
>>> > Unfortunately, I've still got about 1000 Windows 2000 PCs on my
>>> > domain,
>>> > and it seems like when I update a (or more correctly, install a new)
>>> > driver on my Windows 2003 Print Server, it likes to update EVERY
>>> > network
>>> > printer on EVERY PC, even if the models and drivers aren't even the
>>> > same
>>> > (thank you very little, HP).
>>> >
>>> > When that happens, about 10% of the PCs crash their spooler service,
>> until
>>> > they think they've updated ALL of their printer drivers (even though,
>>> > again, their 9050, 4600, and 4000 drivers didn't change a wink just
>>> > because some a--hole started purchasing P4015's and now we have yet
>>> > another crapass HP driver on our server).
>>> >
>>> > Anyone know of any way to change the spooler service to recover
>>> > automatically via GPO or registry hack? I know it's a band-aid (I'm
>>> > thinking of reverting to only using HP 4 drivers...seriously) - but it
>>> > would really help.
>>> >
>>> > Thanks,
>>> > Bruce
>>> >
>>>
>>>
>>
>>
>
>