Comments on: Aim 6.5 and Windows Vista, Server execution failed and Media Player Issues

By: David Elliott

David Elliott — Sun, 07 Jun 2009 21:57:48 +0000

None of these solutions are correct. Do NOT add “NT AUTHORITY\LocalService” to the Administrators group. It appears to fix the problem but other stuff will still fail (for example, applying SP2).

After a coworker’s machine succumbed to this problem I googled for it but with no luck for a real solution. This is the best page I found and I appreciated the stark warning against adding LocalService to the Administrators group but unfortunately I didn’t see any real solutions besides uninstalling and reinstalling stuff. There had to be a better way and the starting point is that clearly it is some sort of permissions problem.

To discover the problem I ran procmon.exe (sysinternals) looking for Result ACCESS DENIED. This showed svchost.exe having trouble reading various things under HKCR\CLSID. So clearly it is some sort of permission problem but local services are supposed to be able to read HKCR without needing to be in the Administrators group so clearly something was wrong with the permissions in the registry.

A quick glance at HKCR keys seemed to indicate that it should have permissions but then I recalled that HKCR doesn’t really exist. Rather, HKCR is HKLM\Software\Classes with HKCU\Software\Classes overlaid on top of it. And HKCU is in turn simply a reference to HKEY_USERS\some-SID. Basically what this means is that when you run regedit, the view you get of HKCR (and HKCU) is specific to you. So looking at the permissions on HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT or HKEY_CURRENT_USER is going to give you bogus results: it always appears as though you, the user running regedit, are the owner of the keys which is not the reality of the underlying storage in HKLM\Software\Classes or HKCU\Software\Classes

Well none of the service accounts have a SOFTWARE\Classes key within their “user” registry hive so it has to be something with HKLM\Software\Classes. After examining my machine I found that permissions on Vista are defined at the HKLM\Software level and Classes inherits these. On his machine on the HKLM\Software key he had an extra entry for Everyone. I didn’t check to see what permissions it was granting or denying but I did use the Advanced permissions editor on both machines and saw that the only difference was that his machine had an entry for Everyone and mine did not. Everything else was the same, including which rights were granted to the remaining four SIDs.

I went ahead and deleted the entry for Everyone then hit OK. Warning: this will take a somewhat long time to process as the system has to recurse into all child registry keys of HKLM\Software and for any that are inheriting their permissions it has to fix them up. Do NOT cancel out under any circumstances! Let it finish applying the new ACL entries. It will appear to be hung while it does this.

How the entry for Everyone got there, I don’t know. But I do know that AIM had auto upgraded on him to version 7 which he didn’t like so he uninstalled it and installed an older version which is when this trouble began. He also had UAC disabled.

As a check, use the Effective Permissions tab and enter the Local Service name. This should show only certain permissions allowed (basically only those related to reading). If you had added Local Service to your Administrators group it will show full control; take Local Service out of Administrators (e.g. using computer management) and come back here and calculate effective permissions again (this will take effect immediately). It should show only a few things checked to allow reading. Now reboot and everything should be working just fine, including the Network List service.

For him, this fixed the problem and although we haven’t tried it yet I believe it will also fix the problem with installing SP2.

By: Terence

Terence — Wed, 04 Feb 2009 01:32:30 +0000

Hey Mike… I saw another website and ended up doing the “Local Service Method” without being aware that it was very risky… I still have the X over my network so it seems all for naught. I was trying to see if I could reverse the process and what the command would be that I would need to engage. Thanks in advance.

By: WBMike

WBMike — Wed, 07 Jan 2009 05:02:23 +0000

Follow the XP compatibility method and install it with Aim 6.8. Really the thing is to just install AIM with UAC on, then after its installed you can turn UAC off. Remember that everytime you upgrade AIM you have to turn UAC back on.

By: Crystal

Crystal — Wed, 07 Jan 2009 03:11:13 +0000

So I just had this happen to my computer and it’s restoring right now (obviously, I’m on a different one). Is there an AIM that’s safe to use without having to do anything special besides just downloading it? As much as I HATE 6.8, I may just download it and deal with it if it doesn’t come with these problems.

By: Gabe

Gabe — Sun, 28 Dec 2008 00:26:45 +0000

This problem exist if AIM crap is not installed.

Please help!

By: Matt

Matt — Tue, 08 Jul 2008 17:34:47 +0000

when i type thing in aim the type is big but the font is the same size it’s always been. it happened all of a sudden and I’ve tried uninstalling and reinstalling it but, it hasn’t worked. do you know what i should do?

By: kyle

kyle — Sat, 21 Jun 2008 15:36:05 +0000

attempted every workaround i could find, the only one that gets rid of the red x is the least secure… but it does work.

By: kyle

kyle — Sat, 21 Jun 2008 14:53:05 +0000

edgar’s answer fixed my winamp/itunes. does not fix the ‘red x’ server execution failed. but im not that concerned with it.

i fixed the sound on my vista when i encountered this problem…
1. go to control panel
2. switch to classic view
3. click on sound
4. windows asks if you would disable driver enhancements for this device CLICK YES and there u have it peeps!!

By: WBMike

WBMike — Sun, 20 Apr 2008 17:45:19 +0000

Hello we will be updating this entry for newer instructions about this event.

By: Star S. Wildfire

Star S. Wildfire — Sun, 20 Apr 2008 08:04:47 +0000

I just want to stop and thank everybody that has posted here for doing so, I have been able to succesfully correct my issue after installing American offlines messenger service by following the UAC instructions above. I had a few other symtoms that occured after installing All outta luck:
In my device manager I had a ton of devices listed as non UPnP showing up. Also in the device manager my Drive SM_usb20 (flash drive) driver was unable to load. (Yet I could still access my drive normally) in addition to that it removed my Readyboost settings from my flash drive entirely.

Ty once again for all your help guys.

By: Ryan

Ryan — Fri, 28 Mar 2008 16:36:51 +0000

System restore corrupted the operating system after I tried fixing my AIM issue with it… I really don’t want to have to turn UAC on… It’s annoying. I’m going to try AnonHero’s method with UAC off and see what happens.

After I finish reformatting my laptop that is…

By: Rezen

Rezen — Mon, 24 Mar 2008 18:32:55 +0000

Well, it looks like the compatibility install worked for me! I installed the latest 3-11-08 AIM Install using AnonHero’s compatibility method (also having UAC turned on) and AIM is now installed and Vista Ultimate on my Dell M4300 is running without any of the previous symptoms (Com event error, Network X Icon, Multimedia issues).

Thank you so much Hero!

By: Rezen

Rezen — Mon, 24 Mar 2008 16:33:33 +0000

I’m one of the few people that the UAC method has NOT worked for. I tried it twice and all the symptoms re-appeared after the next reboot. So I’m still on 6.1.41.2 hoping I don’t get hacked.

I will try the compatibility install today and report back here.

By: WBMike

WBMike — Sat, 22 Mar 2008 17:29:18 +0000

Ok sounds interesting, I’ll leave it up there until others have tested it out. UAC method still seems to be working fine though.

By: AnonHero

AnonHero — Sat, 22 Mar 2008 17:20:45 +0000

I may have found a fix.
>Download and save the AIM setup somewhere.
>Run this setup through the programs compatability wizard under start>control panel>programs>use and older program with this version of windows.
>when it asks what version of windows it worked with, select XP sevice pack 2.
>don’t select any color or screen optoins, excetera.
>once you finish the wizard should auto start the AIM installation.

>I’ve doen this and haven’t come across any problems yet, like the network/windows media problems. (which i’ve had before when i installed AIM the normal way.)

Please spread this around and let everyone know, I just posted here to get the word started, the rest is up to you all.