What is Spooler Subsystem App or (Spoolsv.exe) and fix High CPU Usage by it

One of Microsoft’s services is the spooler subsystem application that is embedded into Windows OS. The primary function of the Spooler Subsystem App application is to print and fax the tasks that are sent to the PC’s Printer or Print Server. This process is also responsible for printer configuration, which means if the service is disabled, then you can’t see the list of installed printers.

Is spoolsv.exe a virus?

Malware programs such as viruses, Trojan, and worms deliberately give their process the same file name to escape detection, but spoolve.exe is not a virus by itself.  However, if the antivirus is flagging spoolsv.exe, it is primarily because of a virus that has corrupted it. This corrupted spoolsv.exe file can be identified and detected by simple & almost any antivirus program. The user should never delete or remove this file, so the best way to save this file is you use an Up-to-Date antivirus program to detect the viruses and clean or quarantine this file if infected.

Spoolsv.exe High CPU Usage Issue:

Most of the time, such processes do not use much of your computer’s resources. Although it will use some CPU resources when printing, and that’s a regular thing. Some people are reporting that there is high CPU usage by the spoolsv.exe process, but it rarely happens or happens when there is a problem somewhere in the windows printing system. When the spoolve.exe process uses 99% to 100% of the CPU, then possible problems might include buggy printer drivers or utilities, a print queue full of jobs, or a misconfigured printer, failing to execute the process, the system may start lagging.

How to fix the spooler subsystem app error on Windows:

Solution 1: Delete Printer Spool Files

To fix print jobs follow the steps indexed beneath:

1. Open the “Run” prompt and type “services.msc” in the search bar.

   

2. In the services window, locate the “Print spooler” service, right-click on it and select the “Stop” button.

   

3. After stopping the service open “My PC” and navigate to the following location:

   C:\windows\system32\spool\printers

4. Delete all the files in the Printers folder, then right-click on the printer spooler in the service window and select “Start” to re-enable the service.

Note:  If you’re unable to resolve the issue, then make sure you have the latest printer drivers. Also, make sure you have updated antivirus, preferably the Microsoft Defender, as it is a native windows antivirus.

Solution 2: Troubleshooting Printer

If the printer spoolsv.exe subsystem app is taking too much system memory, you can use the oldest trick in the box to take care of it. Here is what you need to do in this regard:

1. Press the “Window + S” keys together to open up the search prompt, here type “Settings” in the search bar and hit “Enter”:
2. In the Settings window select the option of “Update & Security” and then select “Troubleshoot” from the left menu pane.

   

3. In the Troubleshoot window select the option of “Additional Troubleshooters” and in the following window select “Printer” from the list of available devices. Then press the “Run the Troubleshooter” option beneath it.

   

Solution 3: End Spooler.exe Service Through Task Manager

You can also utilize the Windows task manager to supervise the spooler service for you. This tool allows you to enable, disable or end the spoolersv.exe process, and you could also set the priority to high, low, or just normal:

1. Press “Alt + Ctrl +Del” keys simultaneously to open the Task Manager.
2. Navigate to the “Services” option and look for the “Spooler” service.
3. Right-click on it & select the “Stop” option to stop the Spooler service.

   

4. Now, the Spooler Subsystem App High CPU usage issue should be resolved because it is no longer running on the computer.

Solution 4: Delete Spool Files

1. Firstly, right-click on the “This PC” icon located on your Desktop and click the “Open” button.

   

2. Afterwards, navigate to the following path:

   C:\Windows\System32\Spool\Printers

3. Double click on the Printers folder to open it and select the “Delete” option to delete all the files in it by right-clicking on them.

Once you delete all of these files the Spoolsv.exe will not use too much CPU or disk image on Windows.

Solution 5: Re-Download spoolersv.exe File

1. First of all, boot your PC into the Safe Mode by pressing the “Esc or F2” keys on your PC on the startup.
2. Navigate to the following location, find the “spoolesv.exe” file there and delete it:

   C:\Windows\System32

   

3. Now download another file from here and paste it into that folder. Repeat the same procedure with other files like “winspl.dll”, “localspl.dll”, and “spools.dll”.
4. Now, reboot your computer into normal mode and check whether the Spooler Subsystem App High CPU usage issue is resolved.

Solution 6: Tweak Windows Registry

1. Press the “Windows + R” keys on your keyboard and type the “Regedit” command.
2. Now, proceed to the following location:

   HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentSet\Services\Spooler

3.  Go to the right-hand side of Windows and find the “imagepath” icon.
4. Double-click on the imagepath icon, type the following command and hit the “Enter” button:

   C:\Windows\System32\Spoolsv.exe

5. Reboot your machine and check whether the Spooler Subsystem App High CPU Usage issue is resolved by now.

Follow the aforementioned fixes in order to get rid of this error successfully but if the problem continues to persist then feel free to Contact Us here.