How to print all the files in a folder without opening each one?

Anonymous
2010-05-27T11:35:36+00:00

Hi there,

Can anyone tell me how to print all files contained within a folder? I often need to print many files contained within a folder and this would save me a great deal of time!

Thanks!

Windows for home | Previous Windows versions | Files, folders, and storage

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Anonymous
2010-05-31T19:37:47+00:00

I've done some testing, and it appears that Windows 7 only allows printing multiple files when they're all the same file type.  So, for example, you can select and print 15 Word documents, but not one Word document and one PDF document.

To work around this limitation, you can print each file type separately.  For example, to print the PDF files in a folder:

  1. Type *.PDF in the Search box at the upper right.
  2. For 1-15 files, press CTRL+A to select all of them.
  3. For 16 or more files, select 15 of them (click the first, SHIFT +click the last).
  4. Right-click any file and click Print .
  5. Repeat steps 3-4 as required.

Boulder Computer Maven

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  1. Anonymous
    2012-07-23T06:06:26+00:00

    Win 7 can do this without any "helper applications" - Skip steps 2 and 3 if your printer's default settings are OK for the job.

     

    1. From the Start Menu, select Devices and Printers.
    2. Locate the printer you'll print to, and right-click. Select Properties.
    3. Change any default settings to the settings you will use for this print job.
    4. Now, double-click the printer to open the print queue box.
    5. Drag whatever files you wish to print into the print queue box.  They can be mixed file types such as pdf and docx.
    6. A dialog box confirms that you want to print multiple files at once - click OK.

     

    That's it - your documents should start printing immediately.

     

    This is a pretty annoying feature in Win7 - I realize it is done to keep casual users from crashing their systems, but it would be really helpful if the 15 file limitation could be turned off for those who have a print server and a grip of ram!

    If anyone knows how to hack the registry to change this, please share.

     

    In HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer

    create a DWORD (32-bit) Value called MultipleInvokePromptMinimum.

    Doubleclick this new entry an select decimal. Enter 16 in the textbox.

    This should show the Open, Edit, Print menu items regardless of the amount of selected files.

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  2. LemP 74,970 Reputation points Volunteer Moderator
    2012-06-22T17:22:04+00:00

    It may be a common complaint, but it's not quite universal:  I can print multiple pdf files (at least 4) using Win 7 Pro sp 1.

    Although I have both Adobe Reader 10.1.3 and Adobe Pro 10.1.1 installed, Adobe Pro opens when I select "Print" from the context menu in Windows Explorer (and stays open after the printing is done), so perhaps the answer is that Reader is not capable of doing this.  I have no idea why that should have been different in Vista.

    I suggest asking the question in one of the Adobe forums.

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  3. Anonymous
    2012-06-22T15:48:09+00:00

    The solution I found to print multiple PDFs at once from Windows 7 is to merge the PDFs either using Adobe (not Adobe Reader) or an online service like http://foxyutils.com/mergepdf/.

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