Dependency Service Error

Hello. I'm new here and I need some help. My computer won't let me run some important programs, such as Command Prompt and Services, and keeps telling me that "The dependency service or group failed to start.". I've looked all over for help and I've found out a few things, such as assigning ownership of Command Prompt to Administraters instead of Trusted Users, but the computer just tells me "Can't open access control editor. The dependency service or group failed to start.". However, I can't do anything to fix this because I would need to use the programs listed above, and, "The dependency service or group failed to start.".

Hello AAklid, Welcome to the WTT Forums. - Could you give us any more info about the computer? Make/Model and OS? - Have you installed any new software or updates recently? - How long has this been happening? - Are you able to access Command Prompt when Windows is in Safe Mode? (Restart the computer and start tapping F8 until you enter Safe Mode. You may have to try it a couple of times) Cheers,

Hello, and thank you for helping me. The computer is a Dell Inspiron laptop, and it's OS is Windows Vista Home Edition. The last time I installed a program was two weeks ago, and the problems only started a day or two ago. Finally, yes, Command Prompt will run in safe mode, but other programs won't.

The first thing to try is do a System Restore to before the problem started happening, see if that fixes it. Good tutorial here:

Using Windows 7 or Vista System Restore

Safe Mode purposely disables most of the services, which means it won't startup with all the usual programs.

If a System Restore doesn't work, you could try verifying the System Files. The Microsoft KB Article below explains how :

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/929833

Note : The only thing I'd add is that when you run SFC, type in "sfc /scannow /f" instead. This will fix any system files as it scans.

Have you tried running Command Prompt from a different user account at all? If you haven't got another user account, you can just create one temporarily from the Control Panel.


Cheers,