Fix The Dependency Service or Group Failed to Start

Fix The Dependency Service or Group Failed to Start: If you are facing this error “The Dependency Service or Group Failed to Start” then it’s because of Windows Services not starting. It seems like a Windows files is being mistaken as a virus and hence it becomes corrupt which in turn conflict with the Windows Network Location Awareness service. The main function of this service is to collect and store Network configuration information and notifies the Window when this information is changed. So if this service is corrupted any programs or services depending upon it will also fail. The Network List Service will not start as it explicitly depends on the Network Location Awareness service which is already disabled due to the corrupt configuration. The Network Location Awareness service is found in nlasvc.dll which is located in the system32 directory.

Fix The Dependency Service or Group Failed to Start

You will see the following error when trying to connect to a network:

A red “X” on the network icon in the system tray displaying error message – Connection status: Unknown The dependency service or group failed to start

The main problem associated with this problem is that users are unable to connect to the Internet even if they connect via an Ethernet cable. If you run the Windows Network troubleshooter it will just display the another error message “The Diagnostic Policy Service is not running” and will close without fixing the problem. This is because the service required for internet connection which are localservice and networkservice have been corrupted or removed from your PC.

How to Fix The Dependency Service or Group Failed to Start Error

Both of the above cases are fixable pretty easily, and users affected by this problem seems to get back their Internet connectivity as soon as the error is resolved. So without wasting any time let’s see how to actually Fix The Dependency Service or Group Failed to Start Error message with the below-listed troubleshooting guide.

Fix The Dependency Service or Group Failed to Start Error

Fix The Dependency Service or Group Failed to Start

Make sure to create a restore point just in case something goes wrong.

Method 1: Add Localservice and Networkservice to Administrators Group

1.Press Windows Key + X then select Command Prompt (Admin).

command prompt admin

2.Type the following command into cmd and hit Enter after each one:

net localgroup administrators localservice /add

net localgroup administrators networkservice /add

Add Localservice and Networkservice to Administrators Group

3.Exit the command prompt and reboot your PC to save changes.

Once your computer reboot you must have Fix The Dependency Service or Group Failed to Start issue.

Method 2: Give Network and Local service accounts access to all of the registry subkeys

1.Download the SubInACL command-line tool from Microsoft.

2.Install it and then run the program.

Install SubInACL command line tool

3.Open a notepad file and save the file with the name permission.bat (The file extension is important) and change the save as type to “All files” in notepad.

subinacl.exe /subkeyreg “HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\system\CurrentControlSet\services\NlaSvc” /grant=”Local Service”

subinacl.exe /subkeyreg “HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\system\CurrentControlSet\services\NlaSvc” /grant=”Network Service”

Give Network and Local service accounts access to all of the registry subkeys

4.If you are facing permission issue with DHCP then run the below command:

subinacl.exe /subkeyreg “HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\system\CurrentControlSet\services\dhcp” /grant=”Local Service”

subinacl.exe /subkeyreg “HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\system\CurrentControlSet\services\dhcp” /grant=”Network Service”

5.Reboot your PC to save changes.

Method 3: Manually Turn on the required Services

1.Press Windows Key + R then type services.msc and hit Enter.

services windows

2.Make sure the following services are running and their startup type is set to Automatic:

Application Layer Gateway Service
Network Connections
Network Location Awareness (NLA)
Plug and Play
Remote Access Auto Connection Manager
Remote Access Connection Manager
Remote Procedure Call (RPC)
Telephony

Right click on Application Layer Gateway Service and select Properties

3.Right-click and select Properties for the above services then click start if the service is not already running and set their startup type to Automatic. Do this for all the above services.

Set Startup type to Automatic and click Start under Service status

4.Reboot your PC to save changes and again check if the issue is resolved or not.

5.If you are again facing the issue then also start these services and set their startup type to Automatic:

COM+ Event System
Computer browser
DHCP Client
Network Store Interface Service
DNS Client
Network Connections
Network Location Awareness
Network Store Interface Service
Remote Procedure Call
Remote Procedure Call (RPC)
Server
Security Accounts Manager
TCP/IP Netbios helper
WLAN AutoConfig
Workstation

Note: While running DHCP client you may receive the error “Windows could not start the DHCP Client Service on Local Computer. Error 1186: Element not found.” Just ignore this error message.

right click on Remote Procedure Call service and select Properties

Similarly, you can get the error message “Windows could not start the Network Location Awareness service on Local Computer. Error 1068: The dependency service or group failed to start” when running Network Location Awareness service, again just ignore the error message.

Method 4: Resetting Network Adapter

1.Press Windows Key + X then select Command Prompt (Admin).

command prompt with admin rights

2.Type the following command into cmd and hit Enter after each one:

netsh winsock reset catalog
netsh int ip reset reset.log hit

netsh winsock reset

3.You will get a message “Successfully reset the Winsock Catalog.

4.Reboot your PC and this will Fix The Dependency Service or Group Failed to Start error.

Method 5: Resetting TCP/IP to Default

1.Press Windows Key + X then select Command Prompt (Admin).

command prompt with admin rights

2.Type the following command into cmd and hit Enter after each one:

  • ipconfig /flushdns
  • nbtstat –r
  • netsh int ip reset reset c:\resetlog.txt
  • netsh winsock reset

resetting your TCP/IP and flushing your DNS.

3.Reboot to apply changes. Flushing DNS seems to Fix The Dependency Service or Group Failed to Start.

Method 6: Replace the corrupted nlasvc.dll

1.Make sure you have access to one of the working computer. Then navigate to the following directory in the working system:

C:\windows\system32\nlasvc.dll

2.Copy the nlasvc.dll into USB and then insert the USB into the non-working PC which is showing the error message “The Dependency Service or Group Failed to Start.”

Copy the nlasvc.dll into USB Drive

3.Next, press Windows Key + X then select Command Prompt (Admin).

command prompt with admin rights

4.Type the following command into cmd and hit Enter after each one:

takeown /f c:\windows\system32\nlasvc.dll

cacls c:\windows\system32\nlasvc.dll /G your_username:F

Note: Replace your_username with your PC username.

Replace the corrupted nlasvc.dll file

5.Now navigate to the following directory:

C:\windows\system32\nlasvc.dll

6.Rename the nlasvc.dll to nlasvc.dll.old and copy the nlasvc.dll from the USB to this location.

7.Right-click on the nlasvc.dll file and select Properties.

8.Then switch to Security tab and click Advanced.

right-click on nlasvc.dll and the click properties, switch to Security tab and click Advanced

9.Under Owner click Change and then type NT SERVICE\TrustedInstaller and click Check Names.

Type NT SERVICE TrustedInstaller and click Check Names

10.Then click OK on the dialog box. Then click Apply followed by OK.

11.Reboot your PC to save changes.

Method 7: Repair Install Windows 10

This method is the last resort because if nothing works out then this method will surely repair all problems with your PC. Repair Install just using an in-place upgrade to repair issues with the system without deleting user data present on the system. So follow this article to see How to Repair Install Windows 10 Easily.

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That’s it you have successfully Fix The Dependency Service or Group Failed to Start but if you still have any questions regarding this guide then feel free to ask them in the comment’s section.

2 thoughts on “Fix The Dependency Service or Group Failed to Start”

  1. Hi I wanted to stop back by and say it’s appreciated. Method 1 worked for me after trying countless cmd’s elsewhere including Billy Gates place. So many, wasn’t sure I’d tried this one or not. lol

    Couldn’t get netman to start and had the red x over network icon. Also couldn’t see my adapters in Network Connections. Yet I had web access.

    It all started on a “foul hooked” Windows 7 update 2-2019 I believe. Both updates, .NET framework KB4487078 and Windows 7 rollup KB4486563 Thanks – Shawn

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