Print driver host for 32bit applications has stopped working

This article lists the possible solutions to fix the error Print driver host for 32bit applications has stopped working on a Windows computer. This error usually occurs on the older versions of Windows operating systems that use 32bit printer drivers. If you see this error on your system, you can try the solutions provided in this post.

How do I fix the Print driver host for 32bit applications has stopped working?

This is a driver-related error. Therefore, you can fix this by updating your printer driver from the Device Manager. Apart from that, the error message can also occur if the Print Spooler service has stopped working. Therefore, another solution to this problem is restarting the Print Spooler service.

Print driver host for 32bit applications has stopped working

The following solutions may help you get rid of the error “Print driver host for 32bit applications has stopped working.”

1. Reinstall the printer driver.
2. Clear the print queue and restart the Print Spooler Service.
3. Install the PostScript driver.

Let’s see all these solutions in detail.

1] Reinstall the printer driver

It is clear from the error message that the problem is associated with the printer driver. Therefore, check the status of the printer driver in the Device Manager. If the status of the driver shows a yellow exclamation mark, uninstalling and reinstalling the driver may fix the problem.

The following instructions will guide you on this:

1. Open the Control Panel.
2. Select Large icons in the View by mode.
3. Select the Devices and Printers.
4. Right-click on your printer and select Remove device. This will remove the printer from your computer.
5. Now, launch the Run command box and type devmgmt.msc. Click OK. This will launch the Device Manager.
6. Expand the Printers, Print queues, or Printer Device node.
7. Right-click on your printer driver and select uninstall device.
8. After uninstalling the printer driver, close the Device Manager and restart your computer.
9. Now, open the Control Panel again and go to Device and Printers.
10. Click on the Add a printer option and add your printer again. This will install the latest version of your printer driver.

If this does not work, try updating the printer driver from the Device Manager. The steps are as follows:

1. Open the Device Manager.
2. Right-click on your printer driver and select the Update driver option.
3. Now, click Search automatically for drivers.

After that, Windows will search for the latest version of the printer driver and install it on your system. After updating the printer driver, check if the issue persists.

2] Clear the print queue and restart the Print Spooler Service

The Print Spooler is software in Windows operating systems that stores the print jobs temporarily in the computer’s memory.  This service allows a user to print or delete the queued print jobs. If the Print Spooler service is stopped, your printer may not work. In such a case, you have to restart the Print Spooler service.

You can try restarting the Print Spooler service and see if it fixes the problem. The following steps will guide you on this:

Launch the Command Prompt as an administrator.

Enter the following command and press Enter to stop the Print Spooler service.

net stop spooler

Now, type the following command to clear the print queue. After typing the command, hit Enter.

del /F /Q %systemroot%\System32\spool\PRINTERS\*

Enter the following command and press Enter to start the Print Spooler service again.

net start spooler

After restarting the service, check if the error occurs again.

Read: Wi-Fi Printer setup using USB fails with the HP Smart app on Windows 11.

3] Install the PostScript driver

According to most of the affected users, the problem was fixed when they switched from PCL drivers to PS (PostScript) drivers. You can also try this solution. Uninstall the current version of your printer driver and then download the PS driver from the manufacturer’s website. Double-click on the installer file to install the PS driver on your system.

This should fix the problem.

What is the print driver host for applications?

The print driver host for applications is a printing-related operation that lets the 64-bit OS printers communicate with the 32-bit Office programs. In simple words, it lets users print from 32-bit Office programs by using the 64-bit printers.

Will 32-bit drivers work on 64-bit OS?

The 32-bit applications are not 100% compatible with the 64-bit OS. This means that the 32-bit applications may or may not work on a 64-bit OS. In most cases, the 32-bit drivers do not work on a 64-bit OS. Therefore, users need to switch from 32-bit drivers to 64-bit drivers to fix the compatibility issues.

Hope this helps.

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