Media Sharing Bug Fix for Windows Vista

Update: Since SP1 has been released for Windows Vista the fix described below does not work for 64bit installations.  A comment was left below that offers a quick and easy fix that worked for that reader.  Thanks "wounding"! =]

I ran into a bug when trying to share my media with my XBox 360.  Each time I tried to enable the sharing through the Network and Sharing Center in Windows Vista Ultimate I received this error message:

Media sharing is currently disabled, either because the sharing service is no longer running or your firewall settings have changed. To restart sharing you must first confirm your sharing settings.

Regardless of how many times I enabled sharing, this message would always pop up the next time I attempted to re-enable sharing.  After a bit of investigating I was able to finally fix this issue.  Here are the steps that you need to take in order to fix this issue.

  1. Open a command prompt (be sure to right-click and choose "Run as administrator" or you will receive a "system error 5 has occured. Access denied." error)
  2. Type net stop winmgmt.  If it warns you about other services stopping just type Y to continue.
  3. Delete the folder (choose the option that fits your Operating System)
      - Vista 32Bit: %SystemRoot%\System32\WBEM\Repository and all its contents
      - Vista 64Bit: %SystemRoot%\sysWOW64\WBEM\Repository and all its contents
  4. Reboot
  5. Once the system has rebooted open a command prompt and type net localgroup administrators NetworkService /ADD

That should fix your problem!  This should also fix the problem where you receive the server execution error in the Network and Sharing Center.

Disclaimer: Although no one has reported a problem with the solution above, please be aware that you are running these commands at your own discretion.  I will be glad to assist in any way I can, but I do not take responsibility for any issues incurred.

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Comments

Posted on 12.18.2007 04:51 AM #

Brian

Brian us
Wow thank you so much. I would have never figured that out.

Posted on 12.18.2007 18:06 PM #

Danny

Danny us
No problem Brian - glad I could help.

Posted on 12.19.2007 09:29 AM #

Vince

Vince us
U rock man. I've scoured the net for this issue. I was leaning towards Norton being the root of this problem, but your instructions have completely fixed the prob.

Posted on 12.19.2007 16:55 PM #

Danny

Danny us
Thanks for the kind words Vince - glad I could help you fix the issue. =]

Posted on 12.21.2007 18:45 PM #

Steve

Steve us
Thanks for this post ... what a pain! ...

Good to go! no thanks to MS!

Posted on 12.30.2007 20:48 PM #

Danny

Danny us
Anytime Steve. No need to hate on Microsoft. Smile

Posted on 01.31.2008 21:51 PM #

me168

me168 us
when I try to run net stop winmgmt and enter y it tells me: System error 5 has occured. Acess denied.

Posted on 01.31.2008 21:53 PM #

Danny

Danny us
This is typically because you are not running under an administrator account. Can you verify that you are logged into windows vista as a system administrator?

Posted on 01.31.2008 22:09 PM #

me168

me168 us
I just went in to the start menu clicked my icon and it said I am an administrator so I am pretty sure that is what kind of accout I have

Posted on 01.31.2008 22:11 PM #

me168

me168 us
ok yeah I am positive now

Posted on 01.31.2008 22:12 PM #

Danny

Danny us
Unfortunately this is an issue I've run into with several people. I've worked with a number of people that cannot execute this command even under an administrator account. I will forward this an individual at Microsoft that can hopefully assist with this issue. Once I have more information I'll update this comment thread.

Sorry I don't have an immediate answer for you.

Posted on 01.31.2008 22:14 PM #

me168

me168 us
ok thanks

Posted on 02.5.2008 23:19 PM #

Danny

Danny us
I have received a response from Microsoft. First off I'd like to thank Scott Guthrie, Ian Ellison-Taylor, and Nitan Bhat at Microsoft for their time and assistance. Yet another example of why I enjoy working with Microsoft people/products.

The "system error 5" issue occurs when you do not open the command prompt as an administrator (User Access Control Issue - or UAC). To bypass this error simply navigate to your command prompt executable (C:\windows\System32\cmd.exe for most, replace windows with your system root if necessary). Right-click an choose Run as administrator. Then complete the commands as instructed in the blog post.

I also feel obligated to mention that Nitan Bhat explained that this is not the recommended solution. Attempt at your own risk. I can say that no one who has successfully completed the steps above has reported any issue. I have logged a request for the recommended solution with Nitan and will post it once I have it.

Posted on 02.9.2008 14:43 PM #

me168

me168 us
awesome, I guess I can wait a little longer to see whats recomended. Thank you very much

Posted on 02.12.2008 17:37 PM #

me168

me168 us
hey, just wondering if you have heard anything or if you think i should just do what everyone else did. thanks for all the middle man work you are doing.

Posted on 02.12.2008 18:35 PM #

Danny

Danny us
Unfortunately I have not, but I did follow up today requesting an update. The solution above has worked for everyone that has spoke to me...but again, it is at your own risk.

I have personally used this solution on my computer, btw...

Posted on 02.13.2008 22:21 PM #

me168

me168 us
lol, not much luck but bad luck for me, I tried again and the run as administrator worked but after I restarted and put in net localgroup administrators NetworkService /ADD, I recieved another beautiful error message saying: system error 1378 has occured. The specified account name is already a member of the group.

Posted on 02.15.2008 00:25 AM #

Tshroom

Tshroom us
"Anyways, if you read through the post, I've read and tried what you've just posted and it only removed the error message that prompt up but doesn't let me actually connect to any shares still as it still shows as not being able to find a network connection."

Saw that on another forum. I went through the steps and the same thing happens for me. No more error message at the start, but it still says I am not connected to a network even though I know I am. This is frustrating because I am trying to connect my 360 to share media. My PC sees the 360 but the 360 does not see the PC. If I can't get it fixed I might switch back to 32bit.

Posted on 02.23.2008 21:16 PM #

me168

me168 us
I dont think this matters at all but I am running the 32-bit home basic vista. Here is a pic of what happened after I rebooted and made the command. viewmorepics.myspace.com/index.cfm I dont know what I am doing wrong but hopefully you know.

Posted on 02.24.2008 18:06 PM #

Danny

Danny us
@me168 - It looks like you are missing a space between "NetworkService" and "/ADD".

Posted on 02.24.2008 18:52 PM #

me168

me168 us
Ok your right but now I come up with the previous problem. viewmorepics.myspace.com/index.cfm

Posted on 02.24.2008 19:07 PM #

me168

me168 us
What files now exist in your repository folder? I am thinking about getting the files from an XP that is working fine and putting them in place of my bad repository files.

Posted on 02.25.2008 09:53 AM #

Danny

Danny us
Update: This bug is now in the hands of the Microsoft Network Sharing team and is being investigated. They are working to provide a fix. I will continue to post with any updates.

Posted on 03.1.2008 16:02 PM #

wounding

wounding us
This is important for x64 vista users

instead of follwing the system32 folder delete the repository folder found in sysWOW64

Excellent work on fixing this bug, I have been fighting this for a month.

Posted on 03.2.2008 03:20 AM #

Danny

Danny us
@wounding,
Thanks, you are correct - 64 bit users will need to follow that path. Glad you were able to get things fixed!

Posted on 03.2.2008 23:10 PM #

Tori

Tori us
i am having this same issue...i have about 200 divx movies on my computer and when i try to connect thru x-box it says i am not connected...then there is a message in wmp that the sharing svc has been stopped...this is strange because it happened out of the blue...i was able to share fine for months...then i started getting this problem...but it doesnt happen with every movie...sometimes it will happen at the start of the movie...in the middle or i can finish the movie...very confusing

Posted on 03.3.2008 09:00 AM #

Danny

Danny us
@Tori,
I have never heard of this issue happening intermittently as you described. Have you tried the fix suggested in the post? If so, what were there results?

Posted on 03.3.2008 21:58 PM #

me168

me168 us
Tori may have something disruppting singal like a microwave or phone or something like that maybe?

Posted on 03.3.2008 22:33 PM #

Danny

Danny us
I do not think that is the case since he is seeing the sharing service stopped. Good thought though...

Posted on 03.7.2008 18:40 PM #

Justin Wilcox

Justin Wilcox us
Awesome. Just saved me from reformatting my computer, again. Smile

Posted on 03.10.2008 19:54 PM #

Danny

Danny us
@Justin,
Fantastic! I'm glad I was able to save you that time and effort. Enjoy!

Posted on 03.11.2008 15:41 PM #

John

John us
If you relly want to fix it, here is how. Open the control panel, Then open the administrative tools. Next click on Services. Scroll towards the bottom of the list and find "Windows Media Network Sharing Service. Make sure that this is running. Also right click on this and go to properties. In the properties make sure that this is set to run automaticaly when windows starts. This fixed my Problem and hopefully will fix yours.

Posted on 03.11.2008 16:58 PM #

Danny

Danny us
@John,
This issue is typically not fixed by your solution. In fact, every time I've heard of someone trying that it has displayed an error while trying to start the service. Thanks for the helpful response.

Posted on 03.18.2008 13:35 PM #

wounding

wounding us
I have noticed that this issue seems to revolve around the service pack 1 update for Vista. Everytime I have installed a beta update or the official update my pc reverts back to the previous issue of not being able to detect my network or share my media. Does this theory have any validity??

Posted on 03.18.2008 13:59 PM #

wounding

wounding us
Ok have a problem. Once I have installed service pack 1 on Vista the fix will no longer work as I no longer have the Repository folder within the Wbem folder of SysWow64. The error I am receiving is the exact same as the one I had experienced before.

Posted on 03.23.2008 19:33 PM #

me168

me168 us
I wonder if the sharing team has gotten anywhere

Posted on 04.8.2008 09:41 AM #

Michael

Michael us
I have the same problem and think it may be related to SP1 for VIsta ... everything was fine until the update - now, I can't share, I get the same repeating problem, I go into AdminTools --> Services and can't start WM Network Sharing, and even though I'm running x64, I don't have the correct directory. even when I follow the instructions here for the System32 folder, I don't have the correct privileges to delete the folder in question. What am I doing wrong?!?

Posted on 04.10.2008 16:02 PM #

wounding

wounding us
Same issues here Michael. As far as I can tell this fix no longer works with SP1 (at least for us 64bit users). Simply going to have to wait for an official solution from MS as this is becoming troubling.

Posted on 04.11.2008 05:22 AM #

wounding

wounding us
run a command prompt as an administrator (right-click on it and click "Open as Administrator") then enter the following command line:

net localgroup "Administrators" "NT Authority\Local Service" /add


This worked for me after SP1 in x64 edition.
Credit:docinventor @Xoxide forums

Posted on 04.13.2008 09:51 AM #

Danny

Danny us
This does seem to be much more common no 64bit instances of Vista. I will send another email requesting a status update tomorrow.

Posted on 04.25.2008 05:30 AM #

cuneyt

cuneyt gb
hi i can not delete the file repository, it tells me that the file is open in another program which it isnt. i am running 32bit vista home premium

Posted on 05.6.2008 01:08 AM #

matt

matt us
Have you any news on this yet?

Posted on 05.6.2008 16:40 PM #

Danny

Danny us
Unfortunately no I have not received a response. It looks like SP1 did not help this issue, which would lead me to believe more significant time will be required to fix this bug.

Posted on 05.8.2008 22:16 PM #

matt

matt us
Found a fix for myself.
I already owned nero 8 and it lets me stream my music, pictures, and video.
Very easy to operate and works with network discovery off so I can bypass Windows Vista Ultimate.

Thanks for your quick response though!!!

Posted on 05.11.2008 16:35 PM #

Steve

Steve gb
I've just started getting the error when trying to view videos on my Xbox. It says media sharing is not enabled when it clearly is.

I have to open windows media player on my computer for me to click apply and ok everytime I want to watch something.

I've tried the above steps mentioned but still nothing.... any other hints or tips?

Posted on 05.12.2008 21:24 PM #

Danny

Danny us
@Steve - "woudning" left a comment above (www.dannydouglass.com/.../...or-Windows-Vista.aspx) that discusses some possible alternatives since SP1 has been released. It seems that 64bit users are out of luck since the release of SP1 in regards to my fix above.

Let me know if that works for you.

Also, no word back from Microsoft, sorry everyone. :/

Posted on 05.15.2008 15:42 PM #

wounding

wounding us

This fix will also work:



1. Click Start, click Run, type cmd, then press ENTER

2. For Windows Vista, type the following command, and then press ENTER:

secedit /configure /cfg %windir%\inf\defltbase.inf /db defltbase.sdb /verbose

3. You receive a "Task is completed" message, and a warning message that something could not be done. You can safely ignore this message. For more information about this message, view the %windir%\Security\Logs\Scesrv.log file.
Note In Windows Vista, the defltbase.inf file is a Security configuration template for the default security. You can view the settings for this file in the following location: %windir%\inf\defltbase.inf

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