By Brian Wright on Friday, 26 September 2014
Category: How To

How to fix error Win32: The specified service does not exist as an installed service

After working several days of cleaning up a system that was infected by the Zbot trojan and others, I found that the client's computer would start the Windows Security Center or display the dependancies for any of the services. The message that would be displayed in the Service Dependencies dialog box was "Win32: The specified service does not exist as an installed service." Microsoft knowledge base had no answers so I started comparing the registry of a working Windows 7 system to the one that was failing.

I found that the Windows Management Instrumentation service (Winmgmt) was a dependancy of the Security Center service, but the Winmgmt was not starting because some of the information in its registry keys was missing. Below is what the registry key should have contained.

REGEDIT4

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\ControlSet001\services\Winmgmt]
"DisplayName"="@%Systemroot%\\system32\\wbem\\wmisvc.dll,-205"
"ImagePath"=hex(2):25,73,79,73,74,65,6d,72,6f,6f,74,25,5c,73,79,73,74,65,6d,33,\
  32,5c,73,76,63,68,6f,73,74,2e,65,78,65,20,2d,6b,20,6e,65,74,73,76,63,73,00
"Description"="@%Systemroot%\\system32\\wbem\\wmisvc.dll,-204"
"ObjectName"="localSystem"
"ErrorControl"=dword:00000000
"Start"=dword:00000002
"Type"=dword:00000020
"DependOnService"=hex(7):52,50,43,53,53,00,00
"ServiceSidType"=dword:00000001
"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,c0,d4,01,00,01,00,00,00,e0,93,04,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\ControlSet001\services\Winmgmt\Parameters]
"ServiceDllUnloadOnStop"=dword:00000001
"ServiceDll"=hex(2):25,53,79,73,74,65,6d,52,6f,6f,74,25,5c,73,79,73,74,65,6d,\
  33,32,5c,77,62,65,6d,5c,57,4d,49,73,76,63,2e,64,6c,6c,00
"ServiceMain"="ServiceMain"

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\ControlSet002\services\Winmgmt]
"DisplayName"="@%Systemroot%\\system32\\wbem\\wmisvc.dll,-205"
"ImagePath"=hex(2):25,73,79,73,74,65,6d,72,6f,6f,74,25,5c,73,79,73,74,65,6d,33,\
  32,5c,73,76,63,68,6f,73,74,2e,65,78,65,20,2d,6b,20,6e,65,74,73,76,63,73,00
"Description"="@%Systemroot%\\system32\\wbem\\wmisvc.dll,-204"
"ObjectName"="localSystem"
"ErrorControl"=dword:00000000
"Start"=dword:00000002
"Type"=dword:00000020
"DependOnService"=hex(7):52,50,43,53,53,00,00
"ServiceSidType"=dword:00000001
"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,c0,d4,01,00,01,00,00,00,e0,93,04,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\ControlSet002\services\Winmgmt\Parameters]
"ServiceDllUnloadOnStop"=dword:00000001
"ServiceDll"=hex(2):25,53,79,73,74,65,6d,52,6f,6f,74,25,5c,73,79,73,74,65,6d,\
  33,32,5c,77,62,65,6d,5c,57,4d,49,73,76,63,2e,64,6c,6c,00
"ServiceMain"="ServiceMain"

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\services\Winmgmt]
"DisplayName"="@%Systemroot%\\system32\\wbem\\wmisvc.dll,-205"
"ImagePath"=hex(2):25,73,79,73,74,65,6d,72,6f,6f,74,25,5c,73,79,73,74,65,6d,33,\
  32,5c,73,76,63,68,6f,73,74,2e,65,78,65,20,2d,6b,20,6e,65,74,73,76,63,73,00
"Description"="@%Systemroot%\\system32\\wbem\\wmisvc.dll,-204"
"ObjectName"="localSystem"
"ErrorControl"=dword:00000000
"Start"=dword:00000002
"Type"=dword:00000020
"DependOnService"=hex(7):52,50,43,53,53,00,00
"ServiceSidType"=dword:00000001
"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,c0,d4,01,00,01,00,00,00,e0,93,04,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\services\Winmgmt\Parameters]
"ServiceDllUnloadOnStop"=dword:00000001
"ServiceDll"=hex(2):25,53,79,73,74,65,6d,52,6f,6f,74,25,5c,73,79,73,74,65,6d,\
  33,32,5c,77,62,65,6d,5c,57,4d,49,73,76,63,2e,64,6c,6c,00
"ServiceMain"="ServiceMain"

 

After updating the failed system with the corrrect registry information and rebooting, the Windows Security Center started working and the dependency tab for all of the services were displaying with out any error. If you need to peform the same process, simply copy the registry text above and paste it into Notepad, save it as WMI-Fix.bat to your desktop, and then run it as an Administrator.

We hope that this information is helpful. Please let us know how this has helped you or if you have additional questions. As always Firestone Technical Resources, Inc. is here to help with your computer support issues - "Providing personal service for your impersonal technology."

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