Win 11 Microsoft Print to PDF not working just for Snipping Tool and Photos

Hi All

Windows 11 Pro 23H2, OS Build 22631.3880.

If I create a snipping tool screenshot, or open an image file in Photos, then go to print, and print to Microsoft Print to PDF, it will create a 0KB file and then the application will crash.

Event viewer generates this error log:

Faulting application name: SnippingTool.exe, version: 11.2502.18.0, time stamp: 0x67c605f3
Faulting module name: WINSPOOL.DRV, version: 10.0.22621.3810, time stamp: 0x56f7c354
Exception code: 0xc0000409
Fault offset: 0x0000000000026596
Faulting process id: 0x0xBEF4
Faulting application start time: 0x0x1DBB9E2C1FBB380
Faulting application path: C:\Program Files\WindowsApps\Microsoft.ScreenSketch_11.2502.18.0_x64__8wekyb3d8bbwe\SnippingTool\SnippingTool.exe
Faulting module path: C:\Windows\SYSTEM32\WINSPOOL.DRV
Report Id: 74a5eaef-3a37-47d7-ac33-c280d03efcb5
Faulting package full name: Microsoft.ScreenSketch_11.2502.18.0_x64__8wekyb3d8bbwe
Faulting package-relative application ID: App

I've tried a few different things:

sfc /scannow

net stop pooler > dism /Online /Disable-Feature /FeatureName:"Printing-PrintToPDFServices-Features" /NoRestart > dism /Online /Enable-Feature /FeatureName:"Printing-PrintToPDFServices-Features" /NoRestart > net start spooler

Uninstall and reinstalled the windows feature that adds Microsoft Print to PDF.



This is plaguing quite a few users at my work, so any advice appreciated!

"Microsoft Print to PDF" is known to spool the "printing" process, i.e. relegate the "printing" duties to some low-priority background task. The latter might take its sweet time to generate the file. While the background task is working, the target file is seen as having size 0. This sometime takes quite a while, which often confuses people (i.e. the file continues to sit there with size 0, unopenable). But eventually the file will form properly and acquire proper non-zero size.

As for the crash... Could be a related but separate issue...