There is nothing worse than finding the printer without ink a few days after replacing the cartridge or toner! If the printer is also used by other people, it is highly likely that someone used it to make a large number of prints without notifying you, running out of ink quickly. To understand how many documents have been printed without our consent, in this guide we will show you how to view Windows Printer History, so as to keep track of printer use and to be able to immediately check how many sheets and how much ink was used during our absence. For the guide we will show you both the tools available on the operating system and a program that will allow you to trace all the printed documents. READ ALSO: Cancel a blocked or pending print and clear the queue
How to view Windows Printer History
To save information about documents sent to the printer, we will have to adjust some settings on Windows. If we want to act in an even simpler and more practical way, we will also show you how to use a third-party program to keep all the printed documents (very useful in the case of a printer shared on the network or not directly accessible from the computer in use).Enable print history on Windows
In order to obtain a history of the files printed on Windows, we will have to activate the function that allows you to save the files sent to the printer locally. Since we will keep a copy of each printed document or file, we recommend that you clean up the indicated folder often, to avoid filling the space available on your hard disk or SSD.To enable the saving of the files sent to the printer on Windows, we open the Start menu at the bottom left, search for and open the Control Panel, then go to the Hardware and Sound -> Devices and Printers path. We identify the printer in our possession or that we intend to use for future prints, we right click on it, select the item Printer properties and, in the new window that will appear, go to the Advanced tab, so we can activate the item Keep printed documents .
To confirm the change, click Apply and finally OK . From now on we will have the history of printer files visible directly from the preview window (spooler or print queue).
To view this window with the history without having to print a sheet, simply open the path Control Panel -> Hardware and Sound -> Devices and Printers as seen previously, right click on the printer to be checked and finally click on View printing in progress . Alternatively, open the Start menu at the bottom left, search and open the Print Management program, go to the path Custom filters -> All printers then right click on the printer to be checked in order to select the Open print queue item.
If we don't want to open too many windows, we can also check the print history by opening File Explorer or My Computer and visiting the path C: \ Windows \ System32 \ spool \ PRINTERS, where we will find all the files sent to the printer in an unreadable format ( SHD and SPL files, which are usually linked in pairs for each document sent to the printer).
Whatever the method used, we will be able to find out how many documents have been sent to the printer, so as to immediately realize the amount of ink consumed (especially with the longest prints) and also obtain the date and time of sending. Unfortunately, with this method the instructions and settings sent to the printer will be stored, so we will only be able to obtain the name and extension of the file sent for printing: we will therefore not be able to use this method to recover a document printed in the past of which we do not have the original file.
Enable history with PaperCut Print Logger
If we wish to use a third-party program to monitor the processes of all printers connected to the computer, we recommend downloading the free PaperCut Print Logger program.
Once installed on our computer, it will immediately begin to monitor all the prints made, so that we can retrieve valuable information on each printing process carried out without our consent.
To view the print history generated by the program, open the Start menu at the bottom left, search for the PaperCut Print Logger folder, expand it and finally click on View print data . A local web page will open (works even without the Internet) with all the print jobs started from the computer in the foreground, with detailed information on the date and time of printing, the user who started the print, the number of pages, the number of copies, the printer used and the name of the document from which the printing started.
Conclusions
As we have seen in the previous lines of this guide, viewing the print history on Windows is quite simple, but we will have to act in advance to obtain information on subsequent print jobs (we will therefore not be able to view the printed documents before activation history on Windows or the installation of the PaperCut Print Logger program). If, on the other hand, we also want to reprint the documents already printed, we will have to refer to the print history included within each printer (usually limited to a certain number of documents and reset each time the device is turned off).If we want to check the ink or toner level on our printer, please read our guide on how to check the ink level of the printer .
To add a new one printed on Windows, just read the steps described in our article on How to add a printer on Windows .
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