%1 is not a valid win32 application windows 10 when printing error 0x00000c1. This error message was frustrating me for hours. The computer has an HP laptop and I was on the standard user. I tried so many things I am not 100% of the solution. Uninstalling the printer, updating windows, DISM commands, SFC SCANNOW, deleting some printer files from system32 and even running a virus scan. Nothing seemed to work.
Until early this afternoon when I finally got it fixed. It is an either/or situation. There were a few other print services that I turned on plus I deleted the printer from Windows Registry. I then installed the printer again and it then started to print.
First, the services. Print Spooler was started but the others were not. I believe there was a total of 4 on that HP but I did not screenshot it. This is from my desktop.
As you can see there are three services here with only two of them running. The PrintWorkflow_4c7db568 was not running on the laptop with the issues. I started that along with the others.
The next thing I did was to remove the printer from the registry.
Disable print spool services and then open REGEDIT as administrator. Look for the key:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\\SYSTEM\\CurrentControlSet\\Control\\Print\\Environments\\Windows x64\\Drivers\\Version-xWhere “X” is usually a 3 or a 4. This Kyocera printer was under Version-3. Delete the printer in there and then close the registry. I did forget to make a backup but really I should have made one.
Reinstall the printer and you should be able to print a test page. I cannot believe I found almost no useful information on the Internet. Most of the hits were very old and not even Windows 10. The two sites that mentioned the registry were here and here. I am really confident that I had never heard of those two sites before. If I am unfamiliar with the site I do not visit it right away. In this case I had no other option and as luck would have it, they had the correct information.