Before posting this, I did a search of the Forum and found only one previous report of this error. I was hoping for more reports of this problem and a possible solution. I've got a seriously messed up PC running Viista Home Premium. At start-up, I'm seeing the "Failed to connect to a Windows Service: User Profile Service". All this started when I tried to stop the Task Scheduler from sucking up all the resources. To be honest, I'm not sure what I did to cause the cascade of errors. As an ex-programmer I should know better to document my steps. The worst part of this mess is that I can't even get the original HP System Recovery disk(s) to run as it also starts up with an error and since the operating system was pre-installed on the PC, I have no Install disks to fall back on. After Tweaking.com's utility failed to work, I looked for other similar tools. Win Thruster looked promising but from my research, it looks like it's a scam of major proportions and a program to avoid at all costs.
I did find plenty of reports of the "Invalid Picture" error with VB6 apps but no solutions or workarounds. So I guess I'm up that famous 'smelly' creek without a paddle. What a mess! What a mess!
== edit ==
I did try to run the tweaking.com_windows_repair_aio_setup.exe in both Safe and Regular mode (with MSSE turned off) logged in as administrator and nothing happened. The cursor would flash into 'busy' mode for a brief second and then nothing. Task Manager showed no activity as did Process Explorer.
== edit 2 ==
This PC has been running weird for the past month or more. Symptoms include freezing up while showing full-screen videos (nVidia); loosing key-board short cuts in games like Spider Solitaire (pressing F1 would restore shortcuts temporarily); freezing up while compiling videos in Windows Movie Maker; a USB mouse would stop working for seconds at a time.
At the moment, with some of the system's service gimped, I'm not seeing my usual Vista Video enhancements and many programs fail to remember that they are my default browser (Firefox) and the internal Error viewers are unable to display dependencies. Errors include a lot of entries in the Windows update log with \\?\c:\windows in the intended file address ;
DCOM got error "1053" attempting to start the service ShellHWDetection with arguments "" in order to run the server:
{DD522ACC-F821-461A-A407-50B198B896DC}
DCOM got error "1053" attempting to start the service winmgmt with arguments "" in order to run the server:
{8BC3F05E-D86B-11D0-A075-00C04FB68820}
The print spooler failed to reopen an existing printer connection because it could not read the configuration information from the registry key S-1-5-21-2314216272-3108050197-1080286441-500\Printers\Connections. The print spooler could not open the registry key. This can occur if the registry key is corrupt or missing, or if the registry recently
DCOM got error "1053" attempting to start the service ShellHWDetection with arguments "" in order to run the server:
{DD522ACC-F821-461A-A407-50B198B896DC
This morning, I gave up trying to look for fixes (it's Sunday after all) and decided to play Spider Solitaire and the short-cut issue isn't happening and the same mouse never once gave up in the hour or more that I goofed off a bit. I forgot to mention that the sound service is also not working. USB services are fine. DVD burning works. No problems with Firefox except for the default browser forgetfulness thingy.
== edit 3 ==
Here is a list of errors and warnings from the Event Log (Administrator view) after a cold startup:
The winlogon notification subscriber <Profiles> was unavailable to handle a notification event.
SL Token Store 'Initialize' failed with error hr=0x80070005.
Info: C:\Users\Default\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\SoftwareLicensing\
The Software Licensing service failed to start. hr=0x80070005, [2, 7]
The winlogon notification subscriber <Profiles> was unavailable to handle a critical notification event.
DCOM got error "1053" attempting to start the service ShellHWDetection with arguments "" in order to run the server:
{DD522ACC-F821-461A-A407-50B198B896DC}
The print spooler failed to reopen an existing printer connection because it could not read the configuration information from the registry key S-1-5-21-2314216272-3108050197-1080286441-1000\Printers\Connections. The print spooler could not open the registry key. This can occur if the registry key is corrupt or missing, or if the registry recently became unavailable.
The print spooler failed to reopen an existing printer connection because it could not read the configuration information from the registry key S-1-5-21-2314216272-3108050197-1080286441-1000\Printers\Connections. The print spooler could not open the registry key. This can occur if the registry key is corrupt or missing, or if the registry recently became unavailable.
DCOM got error "1053" attempting to start the service winmgmt with arguments "" in order to run the server:
{8BC3F05E-D86B-11D0-A075-00C04FB68820}
