Help

Major problems with my computer, whats Spool32.exe ? It wants to use avast to get to the internet. I’ve had mass problems and the anti-virus and spyware finds nothing.My windows folder had " ini." in it and it would not delete and a file called El# or something, it didnt exist when i tried to get the properties. System file checker was toasted and winipcfg, toast. avast said it couldnt scan a bunch of files that were obviously a virus. So i re-formatted and now i want to get this done but " spooler sub system " is trying to get access and i’ve never seen it before. I think there’s a severe problem with the net and these unknown problems that nothing detects.

Program Name Spooler Sub System Process A program running on your computer, which either attempted to send an IP packet over the Internet or is waiting for an incoming packet.
Filename SPOOL32.EXE The filename of the program that ZoneAlarm Pro found on your computer.
Program Version 4.10.1998 The version of Spooler Sub System Process running on your computer.
Program Size 45056 The size of the program executable file in bytes.
Program MD5 db3bee092f0e90cf799d69f99c001dae The MD5 hash, or number, that uniquely identifies the executable.
Date Modified Apr-23-1999 10:22:00 PM The date when SPOOL32.EXE was most recently modified.
Connect Type Access This value can be either Access, which is an Internet connection attempt by Spooler Sub System Process or Server, which indicates that Spooler Sub System Process is waiting for connections coming in from the Internet.
Remote Port 53 The port Spooler Sub System Process is using on the remote computer.

  • you are not connected to the Internet.
  • your firewall does not allow the program “avast*.setup” to access the Internet; you can find details in help or read the FAQ section on avast! website.
  • your HTTP proxy settings are incorrect.
  • the server is inaccessible because of a network error or maintenance.

http://www.answersthatwork.com/Tasklist_pages/tasklist_s.htm

Spooler Sub System Process for Windows 95/98/ME. SPOOL32 is a hidden task, a task that does not show up when you press Ctrl+Alt+Del, but which will show up in The Ultimate Troubleshooter or any Task Process viewer, such as Task Info 2002 or WinTasks. SPOOL32 manages the spooling of print jobs. Spooling allows the computer's processor to quickly process a print job by temporarily storing it on the hard disk before sending it to the printer. This allows the processor to return control to the program from which you are printing at a much faster rate than if the program were to process the entire print job and then send it directly to the printer. Note that SPOOL32 will only spool print jobs if you configured your printer to spool print jobs.

Recommendation :
Essential – this task auto-loads at boot-up – leave it alone. If you experience SPOOL32 errors, your problem is not with SPOOL32 but with something else on your PC, quite often the printer drivers.

There are worms and viruses which use the same name for their processes, but as you have just reformatted your disk, this is most likely the Windows process.

If you are on a network, you would need to allow this process to access the network to use a shared printer, I think. (I’m not a network expert!)

There’s no reason to allow it to connect to or allow connection from the internet. Zone Alarm usually recognises these Windows processes and creates a rule automatically. Avast! Webshield may be preventing this from happening: there are pleny of threads discussing the behaviour of Avast! Webshield and Zone Alarm. You might find an answer in one of those…

I dont have a printer…

Then spool32 certainly doesn’t need to access anything! In fact you could disable the service to save memory. I don’t know about Win98SE, but in XP you do this with administrative tools>services.

Spooler Subsystem for the Printer for network use. If your not using the printer for network use, set block for Spooler Subsystem by putting a big fat red X on both server and internet rights. (Trusted and Internet on both)