I literally spent almost 2 hours googling around for this issue.
“error 5: access denied”
No matter if I use sc.exe, the mmc snapin, sysinternals tools, etc. I get the same error. And it took me this much to find this gem referenced on some forum/whatever:
https://groups.google.com/forum/#!msg/microsoft.public.scripting.wsh/r0GXUNHlVBs/YormuJCEOtwJ
So the problem with WinXP Pro, by default, when in a WORKGROUP is that it’s FORCE GUEST on.
That means that every user connecting to it’s services, is authenticated as guest. And guest has no business managing services.
Now people say that there is no solution for this in WinXP Home and for WinXP Pro one should edit the local policies or registry as explained in that article above.
However, but I cannot verify on WinXp HOME, I believe that by putting the Guest user in the administrators account you should be able to get the same effect. This is working (tested) on WinXP PRO !!!
Of course, the implications of such a bold move must be carefully weighed because there are a lot of assumptions made in the system about the Guest account and a lot of things will be affected, but taken the security issue aside, this is COOL 🙂
Ok, so there you go, covering both pro and home editions. Use it at your own risk.
