After you send a print job to the printer from the Print dialog box in a program, or drag files to the Printer icon in the Printers and Faxes window, you can check the status. To check the status of a printer or manage multiple print jobs, you can double-click the appropriate printer icon in the Printers and Faxes window or on the taskbar in the notification area. A window opens showing the print queue, which is the list of files to be printed. You can use this window to cancel print jobs, temporarily pause print jobs, view printer properties, and so on. If you are having problems with a printer or print job, you can defer, or halt, the printing process to avoid getting error messages. With deferred printing, you can send a job to be printed even if your computer is not connected to a printer. To do this, you pause printing, and the file waits in the print queue until you turn off pause printing.
Pause Printing
Click the Start button, and then click the Control Panel.
Double-click the Printers icon in Classic view.
Right-click the printer icon you want to pause, and then click Pause Printing.
Timesaver:
Select the printer, and then click the Pause printing button, or click the File menu, and then click Pause Printing.
For security purposes, if Windows Firewall is turned on (the default setting), printer notification information, such as “Ready” or “Paused,” in the Printers and Faxes folder is slightly delayed and your computer no longer receives other printer notifications, such as “Print job completed” or “Printer out of paper”.