CertiGuide to A+ (A+ 4 Real)  9  Chapter 1: What are Operating Systems and How Do They Work?       9  System Configuration Tools            9  Services

Service Start-Up Methods 1 2 3 4 File Structure

Dependencies Tab

The final tab, “Dependencies”, lists the service dependency tree.

Because services are central to Windows, they can be configured to depend upon one another. As an example, it would make little sense for the Remote Access service to start if the Telephony service had not started, therefore the Remote Access service is configured to be dependant on the Telephony service.

Knowing that dependencies can be viewed in this manner is an important troubleshooting skill. Quite often services can fail to start, and log their failures to the Event Log. These failures can actually be due to a failure of a dependency service and nothing to do with the service writing the failure event to the Event Log. Tracking these failures down requires familiarity with the service management interface, and knowing how to view these dependencies.

To reiterate, the Computer Management tool is nothing more than an MMC console with specific snap-ins pre-added to it. The snap-ins themselves are the important part, and knowing how to use them is vital to successful administration.

Service Start-Up Methods 1 2 3 4 File Structure