Windows Process Activation Service Not Started - Error 3

Question

I tried to start the Windows Process Activation Service in services.msc for a new windows2012 server, and I ran into the error: "Windows Activation Service does not start error 3 ** for almost 3 weeks."

I finally managed to find a solution for this. Hope this works for a few others and saves time.

Decision:

• Open RegEdit
• And go to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE \ SYSTEM \ CurrentControlSet \ services \ WAS \ Parameters
• Check the "ConfigIsolationPath" and make sure that the path is present and that it has the appropriate permissions.

Now open services.msc and try to start the service. It should work.

Answer 1

For me, I did not have ConfigIsolationPath in my registry, but the Windows Process Activation Service was looking for c:\inetpub\temp\apppools\ , which I did not have. Creating this folder again caused problems. This article was very helpful in tracking down the issue: " Windows Activation Service (WAS) stops because it detected an error .

Answer 2

I also did not have ConfigIsolationPath in my registry. It turns out I did not have enough space on my C: \ drive to restart the services. And the viewer of the events did not have a mention of this. I freed up 2 GB of C: \ drive space, and then restarted the W3SVC service in the services, and then did IISRESET, and this seems to fix my problems.

Answer 3

For me, it was a machine.config file that caused an error.

How I fixed it:

• Go to "\% SystemRoot% \ Microsoft.NET \ Framework \% VersionNumber% \ CONFIG \"
• Make a copy of the file "machine.config.default"
• Remove the default extension to make it "machine.config"
• Open the services and double-click on the Windows Activation Service (WAS) to start it.

I did this for 2.0.xxx.

All the best.