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Q157913: Services Set to Interact With Desktop May Fail to Start

Article: Q157913
Product(s): Microsoft Windows NT
Version(s): 4.0
Operating System(s): 
Keyword(s): kbenv kbWinNT400sp4fix
Last Modified: 09-AUG-2002

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The information in this article applies to:

- Microsoft Windows NT Workstation version 4.0 
- Microsoft Windows NT Server version 4.0 
- Microsoft Windows NT Server version 4.0, Terminal Server Edition 
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SYMPTOMS
========

There are several services that are configured to start with the interactive
desktop. If a user logs on immediately after Windows NT starts and then
immediately logs off, a service configured to interact with the desktop may fail
to start. A message may appear that states:

  The application failed to initialize because the window station is shutting
  down.

After you log on a second time, Service Control Manager (SCM) logs two events in
the system event log:

- ID 7009 Timeout (120000 milliseconds) waiting for service to connect.

- ID 7000: The <service name> service failed to start due to the
  following error:

  The service did not respond to the start or control request in a timely
  fashion.

CAUSE
=====

After SCM calls CreateProcess to start the service process, it expects the
service to connect to a named pipe provided by SCM. A service does this by
calling StartServiceCtrlDispatcher early after startup.

When a user logs off, the Win32 subsystem marks the window station as Pending
Shutdown. If Kernel32.dll finds this flag, it does not load. The service process
never gets to the point where it can register with SCM. SCM does not check for
this situation and, therefore, logs the events mentioned above. SCM does not try
to start the service again.

RESOLUTION
==========

To resolve this problem, obtain the latest service pack for Windows NT 4.0 or
Windows NT Server 4.0, Terminal Server Edition. For additional information,
click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft
Knowledge Base:

  Q152734 How to Obtain the Latest Windows NT 4.0 Service Pack


STATUS
======

Microsoft has confirmed that this is a problem in Windows NT 4.0 and Windows NT
Server 4.0, Terminal Server Edition. This problem was first corrected in Windows
NT 4.0 Service Pack 4.0 and Windows NT Server 4.0, Terminal Server Edition
Service Pack 4.



MORE INFORMATION
================

You can work around this problem by not logging off immediately after logging
on.

For additional information, click the article number below to view the article in
the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

  QQ327618 INFO: Security, Services and the Interactive Desktop

Additional query words:

======================================================================
Keywords          : kbenv kbWinNT400sp4fix 
Technology        : kbWinNTsearch kbWinNTWsearch kbWinNTW400 kbWinNTW400search kbWinNT400search kbWinNTSsearch kbWinNTS400search kbWinNTS400 kbNTTermServ400 kbNTTermServSearch
Version           : :4.0
Issue type        : kbbug
Solution Type     : kbfix

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