I'm trying to understand how Network Printing works and the meaning of Print Job statuses.
When you have a Network Printer being served up by a Print Server (Win 2008 R2 x64), is the following true on how a Print Job is handled from a PC (Win7 x64)?
Installation Process:
- User installs Printer from Print Server
- PC downloads the printer drivers from the Print Server and installs local versions on the PC.
Print Job Submission
- User Submits Print Job from 32-bit MS Word to a Network Printer
- PC checks Print Server to verify local printer drivers are current according to those available from Print Server. Updates drivers if necessary.
- PC utilizes drivers to package the print job.
- Print job is sent to the Client Print Spooler (splWOW64.exe) and job is sent to Print Server
- Print Server's Print Spooler (spoolsv.exe) receives the job and manages the Printer's queue.
- Print Job is submitted to Printer
If I open the Print Queue from the Print Server and I see "Spooling" on a user's print job. Where in the process is the print job stuck? Between the PC and the Server, or the Server and the Printer?
I've checked the PC's C:\Windows\System32\spool\PRINTERS and it is empty.