Same results. Popup window with an error in the logon screen. And the same two event id 7000/7009 logged. Perhaps making the AutoKMS depend on some other service would force Windows to load it a little bit later and avoid the errors? I'll try to make it depend on other services to see if that makes a difference and report back. Regards.
Sorry, I had forgotten that I had disabled the Scheduled Tasks created by the Toolkit installer! Re-enabling those tasks is what allows the service to run. I still get the errors on the event log and at the logon screen, but the service can finally start! It seems that Windows launches the scheduled tasks in a later stage of the booting process, and that's when the service is finally able to launch.
So, does this mean that I can simply set the service to manual start and avoid these problems? I'm gonna try.
YES! Setting the service to manual start was all that was needed! No more errors at startup, no eventlog errors, service runs fine and dandy Success!
OK this is because what I do is if AutoKMS is installed as a service, the task runs (it is running as an app here), and if the service is not started, then it starts it. How does this factor into it starting automatically? As in the tasks do launch it but this rules out it functioning on boot as the tasks don't run into initial login. Relying on the tasks to launch a service isn't too good, as it can't function automatically. Can you get it automatic with the tasks enabled?
If I set it to automatically start, it will try to start but will fail with the errors we've already seen. And if the scheduled tasks are disabled, then the service won't ever run at all. However, if the service is set to automatically start, it will fail, but the scheduled task will be able to start it at a later stage. I agree that having the service start by itself and not depend on a scheduled task would be better, but I can live with the current situation. It's not much of a problem for me. PS: As always, I'm willing to test more if you wish so.
I think it may be dependency related. I'm going to try and make another AutoKMS with dependencies. I know KMS uses RPC so that is one idea. See that when the task launches it, everything it could possibly need is running, but that is hard to say beforehand. Also those errors are a bit generic and I know I killed it being a matter of taking too long to start as I don't think that was the issue in the first place (but I offloaded the process to a background process so the service will appear to be done before it is, which is OK). PS; I'll post a reg tweak before I start difficult coding in vain.
Import this as a .reg file and see if the automatic part is fixed. Code: Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00 [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\ControlSet001\services\AutoKMS] "DependOnService"="RpcSs" "Description"="AutoKMS Service" "FailureActions"=hex:80,51,01,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,03,00,00,00,14,00,00,\ 00,01,00,00,00,e0,93,04,00,01,00,00,00,e0,93,04,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00 [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\services\AutoKMS] "DependOnService"="RpcSs" "Description"="AutoKMS Service" "FailureActions"=hex:80,51,01,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,03,00,00,00,14,00,00,\ 00,01,00,00,00,e0,93,04,00,01,00,00,00,e0,93,04,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00
I'm wondering if it is AutoKMS code or not being able to start KMSEmulator. I picked RpcSS because SPPSVC, OSPPSVC, and most other services depend on it. I don't know if the issue is the same or not, as I don't see it being it taking to long to start which is what the errors suggest. It does work if you leave it on auto and start it later right? Because this has to be either a needed service specifically isn't started yet or some reason my code cannot start that early. Does anyone know if mini-kms works when you are at the login screen but not logged in when you have the service for mini-kms installed?
I have a domain with an exchange server. I do not have office installed on the exchange server but I am running the kmsservice on that computer. I have been running it this way for about 6 months, and since the exchange server computer is always running it works great. All the other computers (5) that are running office activate using the exchange machine as their host. I have them set to reactivate once a month so I have plenty of time to catch any problems.
But can they activate if you start up the server and simply leave it at the login screen? I ask because I'm wondering about KMSService running that early.
I don't know. I have never tried that. I got the kmsservice from the mini-kms activation procedure that was around about almost a year ago. It uses srvany to load the kmsservice.exe program and is set to automatic start. I have never had any problems or error messages with it. I always set my exchange server, Exchange 2007 on Server 2008, to logon automatically ( autoadminlogon=1). I am not sure what you are concerned about. Is it the service not starting and going unnoticed, someone trying to activate when the system has just started, or errors of some type in the event log? If you tell me what condition you are concerned about I could probably test for that.
What you could test is if you can startup your server, not login, and see if other hosts can use your server to kms activate (which would mean the service is running on that server before logging in). If it can't be done that way, as in logging in to start it is required, doing a service not as as my task runs as system and could simply leave the KMSEmulator running (Which would be more efficient then the service as I wouldn't need AutoKMS.exe running. So the only benefit of a service here would being able to stop/start it to control the KMSEmulator.).