Spooler Icon Missing

[Dick Sutton]

I had an interesting call from a client today. It seems that his computer
was insisting on printing a document even after he unplugged the laser
printer several timesand/or rebooted his PC several times. He said that
there was never a printer spooler icon in the tray next to the time (I
asked).

Well, it was easy enough to fix his problem: I just had him go to the
printer in question via the control panel and cancel the job (he didn't know
you could do this). He was used to double-clicking on the printer icon in
the tray and working from there.

Whenever he prints, the spooler fires up because its visible in the task
list, but no icon appears. Does anyone have any ideas on what's happening
and how to get the printing icon back for the client?

Thanks in advance,

Dick

 

[Detlev Dreyer]

He said that there was never a printer spooler icon in the tray next
to the time (I asked).

Under WinXP, it depends on the printer driver if that icon shows up or
not.

He was used to double-clicking on the printer icon in the tray and
working from there.

Doesn't match the text above. Maybe, he got used to that icon under
Win98 or similar.

Does anyone have any ideas on what's happening and how to get the
printing icon back for the client?

Again, that depends on the printer driver. As a workaround, Start >
Settings > Printers. Drag the printer with the mouse onto the Quick-
launch toolbar (unlock the taskbar before) in order to create a short-
cut.