Windows Process Activation Service not starting error 3

Question

I tried to start the 'Windows Process Activation Service' in services.msc for a new windows2012 server and I was facing the error:

windows process activation service not starting error 3

Indestructible

Hello Sudhan. Somehow your question survived 7 years in its original form with a solution inside it. That doesn't match the Q & A format of the site so I moved your solution to an answer below (as a Community Wiki). If you wish to post it yourself, ping me and I will delete the CW answer – Krystinakrystle

Answer 1

For me, I didn't 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 got things going again. This article was very helpful in tracking down the problem, "Windows Process Activation Service (WAS) Is Stopping Because It Encountered An Error".

Ether

Thanks it worked for me. I did analysis before using ProcMon and it say missing the path not found. – Havenot

Great... Creating all the folders in path: "C:\inetpub\temp\apppools" worked for me as well. Thanks @Doug. – Trilbi

Answer 2

^{the following was posted originally as part of the question. Edited out of the question and into an answer:}

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1. Open RegEdit
2. Move to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\services\WAS\Parameters
3. Check the ConfigIsolationPath and make sure the path is present and it has proper rights.

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

Krystinakrystle

Answer 3

I didn't have ConfigIsolationPath in my registry either. Turns out i didn't have enough space on my C:\ drive to restart the services. And the event viewer didn't have any mention of this. I freed up 2GB of space on C:\ drive and then restarted the W3SVC service in Services, and then did an IISRESET, and that seemed to fix my issues.

Nemertean

Answer 4

For me, it was the machine.config which was causing the error.

How I fixed it:

1. Goto \%SystemRoot%\Microsoft .NET\Framework\%VersionNumber%\CONFIG\
2. Make a copy of the file machine.config.default
3. Remove the default extension to make it machine.config
4. Open services and double click on Windows Process Activation Service (WAS) to start it.

I did it for 2.0.xxx.

Undercover

Answer 5

I don't see an event viewer error here but if anyone is dealing with WAS issue recorded by Event ID 7023, here is what helped me:

1. Check c:/windows/system32/inetsrv/ folder. applicationHost.config file might be missing or it might be empty. If that’s the case, go to c:/inetpub/history/ Folder and copy the applicationHost.config file from here to c:/windows/system32/inetsrv/ folder. Try to start Windows Process Activation Service again

2. Go to c:\inetpub\temp\ folder. Check if there is an apppools folder. If there is not, create this folder. Try to start Windows Process Activation Service again

3. Open registry editor. Navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\WAS\Parameters. Delete NanoSetup entry. Try to start Windows Process Activation Service again

4. Go to c:/windows/system32/inetsrv/ folder. Duplicate applicationHost.config file. Name the new file applicationHost.config.tmp. Try to start Windows Process Activation Service again

Source: Event ID 7023: The Windows Process Activation Service terminated (System cannot find the file specified)

Arithmetic