Error 0x800f0922 when trying to reinstall "Print to PDF" using Enable-WindowsOptionalFeature

Question

Some time after updating to Windows 10 1903 (from 1803), the "Print to PDF" feature stopped working on my machine for no apparent reason. It was still listed in Printers & Scanners but was no longer selectable from within any application. So I tried to disable, then re-enable it. The former worked (printer disappeared from Printers & Scanners), however the latter failed with error code 0x800f0922 (Screenshot). I've searched the web but all I've found so far relates to either the disappeared printer problem (e.g. here) or the error code - but never both. Any help to solve the problem is greatly appreciated!

Solution

If you get error code 0x800f0922 when you re-enable "Microsoft Print to PDF" or "Microsoft XPS Document Writer" you should first stop the Print Spooler Service:

Open an elevated command prompt and run "net stop spooler".

After the spooler service is stopped you can successfully re-enable those Windows features with Dism, PowerShell or via the Control Panel.

Restart the Print Spooler Service with "net start spooler".

Comments

[Christian Moellenberg]

As I said in my original question (maybe didn't express it clearly enough), that's effectively what I did - just using PowerShell. But no matter whether I use the control panel or the PowerShell, the result is always the same error. In this article the author suggested to use sfc /scannow to check Windows for corruption. I tried that as well but with no further result. I even tried to redo the update installation (from 1803 to 1903), but the error still persisted.

[harrymc]

Have you also tried the two DISM calls as in this article?

[Christian Moellenberg]

Yes, I ran the calls in the order they were mentioned in the article, i.e. (1) DISM.exe /Online /Cleanup-image /Restorehealth, (2) DISM.exe /Online /Cleanup-Image /RestoreHealth /Source:C:\RepairSource\Windows /LimitAccess, and (3) sfc /scannow. They all ran smoothly without any error.

[harrymc]

Does it work when booting in Safe mode?

[Christian Moellenberg]

Haven't tried yet. As I need my system this week in a place where I can't make any backups and don't have easy access to installation media, it will take me a couple of days to try it out. Thanks for your suggestions so far - I'll report later how it goes.

[harrymc]

If it works in Safe mode, then some installed product is causing the problem. Otherwise, for Windows corruption, you could also try a Windows In-place Upgrade of Windows to itself, which could reset these components.

[Christian Moellenberg]

Well, it worked to a certain degree. I managed to re-enable the feature, i.e. the error disappeared. Afterwards I tried to add the printer (printers & scanners, printer is not listed, add local printer with manual settings, select FILE: as printer port, Microsoft, Microsoft Print To PDF). But then I got the error message "The printer driver was not installed. Element not found." with no further details. The print service issued a log message like "error installing printer driver - error code 0x490, HRESULT 0x8007490". Any ideas about this one?

[harrymc]

Safe mode or In-place Upgrade? After In-place Upgrade the printer should have been there already. Perhaps you could add screenshots of what you are doing.

[Christian Moellenberg]

Sorry. I meant safe mode. That's how I could re-enable the feature. It was not possible to re-install the printer in safe mode because the printer service was not running. So I tried that in normal mode (as administrator). BTW, I mistyped the error code - it was 0x80070490. So I guess I do the in-place upgrade of Windows next. I had tried that already but it had left the feature disabled and thus wasn't helpful. This time may be different.

[Christian Moellenberg]

So I finally got around to re-installing the Windows upgrade in-place. Unfortunately, it didn't change anything. The printer is still not there and when I try to reinstall it I get the same error as before (80070490).

[harrymc]

Windows 1909 is arriving and may fix the problem. Until then you could use a third-party PDF printer.

[Christian Moellenberg]

OK, I'll try that. Thanks a lot for your patience!