Problem: Computer Management/Local Users and Groups not working right

[Wanda Cox]

Whenever I go to the Administrative Tools menu in the control panel and try
to manage my Local Users and Groups through the Computer Management utility
I get this error message upon clicking the Member Of section of a user:

"The following error occurred while attempting to read the properties for
the user (Username):
The Server service is not started."

When I click the groups section the users show up in the correct groups
though. I was wondering what "Server service" this could be refering to
because I've checked the services and don't have any services listed by that
name.

 

[Wanda Cox]

There isn't a Server service listed in the list of services so I can't start
it.

Roght click on My Computer and select Manage. Click on Services and

Applications then double click on Services on the right hand side. Scroll
down until you see the Server service and see if it is started. If not try
to start it double clicking on it. Also make sure that the "Startup" is set
to automatic.

 

[noone]

There isn't a Server service listed in the list of services so I can't start
it.

That is not really a problem. Both the Server and Workstation services
will NOT show up in the services display unless you have the "File and
Printer Sharing" and "Client for MS Networking" protcol layers installed
in one of your Network Connections [control panel | Networking Folder].
(if installed, they'll show up in every connection, but may not be
checked in all or any of them - that's good, read on).

If you run/ran the Network Setup Wizzard it will install these layers by
default, and on next reboot those two services will be up and running.
Or you can install them yourself manually [any existing network
connection, properties, networking tab, install button].

But, you DO NOT really need them if you are not actually connected to a
LAN. And, if you do decide to run them, you probably DO NOT want to
"check" either of them in your dial-up internet connection (ie, unbind
them from the tcp/ip stack). That's a big security hole.

Why would you want these layers installed but not bound to any connection?
So you can have the Server service running, and make full use of the
Users and Shares features. And then only if you have NTFS volumes - if
all you have is FAT32 volumns then you definatly do not need these
layers at all, uninstall them and get back some memory. Typical
stand-alone home machines do not need these services running, and
[up until now!] you've been doing ok w/o them -- I'd keep it that way!