Windows wireless service is not running on this computer

Anonymous
2010-02-10T22:15:23+00:00

I have a Gateway laptop running 32-bit Vista SP2 I am unable to connect to any wireless networks. One day I had no problems and the next, I am unable to find any networks.  When I attempt to connect to a network I receive a message that Windows can't find any networks.  When the diagnose why link is clicked I get an error dialogue box that "Windows Wireless Service is not running on this computer". When the Windows network diagnostics dialogue box appears I click on "Start Windows Wireless Service" and then am told that Windows cannot fix the problem and instructs me to contact my network admin or ISP.

I have tried several fixes from different forums and nothing has worked.  I've run virus scans that haven't detected anything.  Is there a fix for this issue?

Windows for home | Previous Windows versions | Internet and connectivity

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Anonymous
2010-02-11T16:44:55+00:00

Hi,

  1. Did you check the status of wireless service i.e. WLAN AutoConfig in services window?
  2. Do you've any security software installed on the computer?
  3. Did you make any changes on the computer recently?

Let's first try to start the wireless service i.e. WLAN AutoConfig service manually. To do this, login to the computer as an administrator.

  1. Click Start, type services.msc and hit enter.
  2. Locate WLAN AutoConfig service, double click on it to open its properties window.
  3. Under General tab, change the Startup type to Automatic and click Start button.
  4. Click Apply and then ok.

Try to connect to the wireless connection and check the result.

If the service still fails to start, then run system file checker tool to scan the computer for corrupt system files and fix them automatically. To run sfc scan, try the steps mentioned in this link: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/929833

For more information about the wireless settings, check this link: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb878035.aspx

Let us know the result of the above troubleshooting steps, so that we can look into more details and assist you further.

Regards,

Syed V

Microsoft answers support engineer.

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  1. Anonymous
    2017-09-11T01:17:56+00:00

    Did not work for me, when I tried to force start the WLAN AutoConfig I received the error: "Error: 1747: The authentication service is unknown.

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  2. Anonymous
    2011-11-06T07:20:27+00:00

    Check out my previous posts here and see if they help. - I would run a disk check from the command prompt and see if there are any corrupted files.... If there are it's really not very hard to replace them. Let me know if this helps. 

    Briefly, I had stated that after you do a disk check from the command prompt you can see the log file that it produces,... (you may need to find out how to retrieve that...), and then just replace any corrupted files that the disk check could not fix.

    • I found two files in my case; I took control of the files, (by changing permissions), and then just copied them from a windows.old file and replaced them in the windows system 32 folder. After that I was able to start the WLAN without any problems. - (Note here that you might also need to start any of it's dependencies manually first.) In order for you to start a service you might have to make sure all it's dependencies are running and if they are not then you will need to start them.

    Note also: if you don't have a window.old file then you can copy the files you will probably need from the system 32 folder from another computer. It shouldn't matter whether the computer is 32 or 64 bit.

    Another note: I have had this problem two or three times. I found this problem occurs most when I turn on more than one computer and my router all at the same time.... Strange? Maybe, but if I turn one computer on at a time and then turn on my router or turn on my router and then turn on my computers the problem doesn't happen. For some reason it seems that when I try starting everything at once my wireless files get corrupted. Since I have noticed this I have made sure I don't start everything at once and I haven't had the problem since.

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  3. Anonymous
    2011-11-06T03:59:06+00:00

    i didn't work.

    i got this:

    Windows could not start the WLAN AutoConfig service on local computer.

    Error 3: the system cannot find the path specified

    Any solutions????

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