Error 0x8007007e Printing from Microsoft Edge, Mail or other Modern Apps

When you try to print a webpage in Microsoft Edge or print a mail from the built-in Mail app, error 0x8007007e may occur. However, the classic desktop programs (a.k.a Win32 apps) can print correctly. The problem is restricted to modern or Universal Web Apps (UWP) like Edge, Mail, OneNote, etc.

Here is the full error message verbatim:

Your printer has experienced an unexpected configuration problem. 0x8007007e

printer error edge 0x8007007e printconfig.dll

Fix: Error 0x8007007e when Printing from Microsoft Edge

The error 0x8007007e occurs if the module PrintConfig.dll is missing under the printer’s spool folder. Error 0x8007007e — ERROR_MOD_NOT_FOUND – (0x7E) — translates to The specified module could not be found.

You can download the PrintConfig.dll from Microsoft (via WinBIndex), or extract it from the Windows 10 ISO or DVD. Let’s start with the former method — downloading from Microsoft via the WinBIndex.

Method 1: Download PrintConfig.dll from Microsoft via WinBIndex

The Windows Binaries Index (Winbindex), a non-Microsoft site, allows us to quickly view information about the files and download some of them from Microsoft servers directly. The files that can be downloaded are executable files (currently .exe, .dll, and .sys files).

  1. Visit the following URL:
    https://winbindex.m417z.com/?file=printconfig.dll
  2. Select your Windows 10 version from the list.
    printconfig.dll download from winbindex
  3. Download both x86 and x64 versions of the DLL. The links point to the Microsoft servers to the DLL files directly.
  4. Move the x64 (64-bit) version of the file to C:\Windows\System32\Spool\Drivers\x64\3 folder.
  5. Move the x86 (32-bit) version of the file to C:\Windows\System32\Spool\Drivers\W32X86\3 folder.

That’s it. See if you’re able to print now.

Method 2: Copy the file from WinSxS or the Drivers folder

  1. Open the C:\Windows\System32\Spool\Drivers\x64\3 folder.
  2. In the above folder, a file named PrintConfig.dll must exist. If it’s missing, that causes the error 0x8007007e when printing from modern apps. See if you have the folder Spool\Drivers\x64.old\3. If the folder exists, copy PrintConfig.dll to the Spool\Drivers\x64\3 folder.
  3. If the x64.old folder is missing in step 2, you can find the .dll file in other locations. Open the Windows\System32 folder and do a search for PrintConfig.dll and you’ll see the search results as below:printer error edge 0x8007007e printconfig.dll
  4. The search results may show some older version(s) of the file. Be sure to pick the most recent version of PrintConfig.dll (x64 version) from search results and copy the file to C:\Windows\System32\Spool\Drivers\x64\3
  5. Likewise, if the 32-bit version of the file is missing from \spool\drivers\W32X86\3, search for the file and copy it from the other location.

In Windows 10 v2004, here is the file info and hash checksum of the modules.



SHA256: 886437A58B039D5E88882C6498F08B2C60726422F8163A4E66A5933D5F4DC8E3
File: C:\Windows\System32\spool\drivers\x64\3\PrintConfig.dll
Verified: Signed
Signing date: 7:25 AM 8/8/2020
Publisher: Microsoft Windows
Company: Microsoft Corporation
Description: PrintConfig User Interface
Product: Microsoft« Windows« Operating System
Prod version: 10.0.19041.329
File version: 10.0.19041.329 (WinBuild.160101.0800)
MachineType: 64-bit


SHA256: 51A3D374AB05FA92F684F5CDFCEB11CF781EBC8833744A5275923D4FE96FDB83
File: C:\Windows\System32\spool\drivers\W32X86\3\PrintConfig.dll
Verified: Signed
Signing date: 7:26 AM 8/8/2020
Publisher: Microsoft Windows
Company: Microsoft Corporation
Description: PrintConfig User Interface
Product: Microsoft« Windows« Operating System
Prod version: 10.0.19041.329
File version: 10.0.19041.329 (WinBuild.160101.0800)
MachineType: 32-bit

Method 3: Extract the file from Windows 10 ISO or DVD

Alternatively, you can get a fresh copy of the file from the Windows 10 ISO. Mount the ISO and open the sources\install.wim using 7-Zip and extract the PrintConfig.dll. Make sure you enable Flat View from the View menu in 7-Zip to locate the DLL file inside the WIM easily.

In case the file install.esd is present in place of install.wim, first, you need to convert it to the .wim format and then open it using 7-Zip.

printer error edge 0x8007007e printconfig.dll

You must, however, make sure that you’re using the latest Windows 10 ISO slipstreamed with the newest quality update to get the latest version of the file. In the above image, you can see that it has an older version (0.3.18362.145) of the DLL file compiled on 3-19-2019. That’s because I haven’t updated my USB setup disk as of recent.

How did the file go missing?

It’s possible that you may have earlier renamed the x64 folder to x64.old (as advised by your printer support team) in order to fix other printing related issue(s) — e.g., stuck print jobs. As a result, the PrintConfig.dll will be under Spool\Drivers\x64.old\3. Copying it back to Spool\Drivers\x64\3 fixes the problem.

Editor’s note: This article was updated in August 2020. The WinBIndex (Method 1) was added in this revision and that’s why the screenshot shows v2004 version of DLLs. When the other two methods were written, Windows 10 v1903/v1909 was current. Regardless, the methods work in any version of Windows 10.


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Ramesh Srinivasan is passionate about Microsoft technologies and he has been a consecutive ten-time recipient of the Microsoft Most Valuable Professional award in the Windows Shell/Desktop Experience category, from 2003 to 2012. He loves to troubleshoot and write about Windows. Ramesh founded Winhelponline.com in 2005.

6 thoughts on “Error 0x8007007e Printing from Microsoft Edge, Mail or other Modern Apps”

  1. Great job. This method fixed my problem printing Outlook Windows 10 emails, which gave this same error message: 0x8007007e with a message about a configuration error.
    (Printing from gmail, there was no problem.) The error came up no matter which printer was selected, so it’s a waste of time to try to mess with updating printer drivers, or following other instructions about stopping all start-up services, etc.

    Microsoft prefers to call this Windows 10 Mail, by the way, even though it’s called Outlook Mail (an app in Windows 10). Go figure.

    The error seems to be something with Windows 10 or a Windows 10 update, which isn’t properly putting this printconfig.dll file where it belongs (in the two folders mentioned in the solution here). It’s their OS and their email app, no matter what they call it, and they should fix this when they get a chance. Or people can just forward the emails to gmail and then print them, as a workaround…

    Reply
  2. Thank you so much! I have tried all of the Microsoft Community fixes and none of them told I could find the missing file in the system32 folder. You’re a rock star!

    Reply

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