Software Licensing

[Black Viper]

Discussion of the Software Licensing Service located in Windows Vista SP1.

Software Licensing
Service Information: http://www.blackviper.com/WinVista/Services/Software_Licensing.htm

[dunzel]

Hi!

Don't you feel that in situations like the one with this service, where µ$ literally has you by the short hairs, that it ought actually not be a service, since, in theory, services are negotiable, but should in reality be in the kernel itself?

japt:

[rocket]

DRM in the kernel itself? Might as well be with all the other "security" measures (mainly the driver signing policy) you can't change much anyway. But this part of it is kinda negotiable. The only listed dependencies are ReadyBoost and SL UI Notification (which disabling may lock down the control panel). That's it for default processes anyway, don't know what else is out there. I had this disabled for awhile and didn't have any problems but since I have a legit license key I figured I might as well enable it in case I run into problems updating or something... I wonder if setting it to manual would be better? I don't use ReadyBoost and it doesn't seem like it needs to be constantly running.

[couttsj]

I had problems with the Software Licensing Service early on. There were a few occasions when the telnet program would not work. Most of the time, a reboot would fix the problem. But then one day, even a reboot wouldn't fix it. After some research, I fixed it by stopping the Software Licensing Service and restarting it. That problem went away (along with many others) when I disabled the Task Scheduler (I have no idea what the connection is).

J.A. Coutts

[izomiac]

This service seems to be necessary for the control panel.  If it is not running the control panel fails to open, and the start menu submenu is empty.  I didn't notice any other major symptoms from setting it to manual, but I didn't really look.

[Black Viper]

This service seems to be necessary for the control panel.  If it is not running the control panel fails to open, and the start menu submenu is empty.  I didn't notice any other major symptoms from setting it to manual, but I didn't really look.

Actually, the SL UI Notification Service is responsible for the control panel failing to open... and it requires Software Licensing to function properly. As such, if you disable Software Licensing, SL UI Notification Service will not work, which then breaks the control panel.

http://www.blackviper.com/WinVista/Services/SL_UI_Notification_Service.htm

[brokendroid]

Actually, the SL UI Notification Service is responsible for the control panel failing to open... and it requires Software Licensing to function properly. As such, if you disable Software Licensing, SL UI Notification Service will not work, which then breaks the control panel.

http://www.blackviper.com/WinVista/Services/SL_UI_Notification_Service.htm

I´ve had the SL UI notification service disabled (but software licensing running) for almost a year and my vista control panel is fine.. using classic view with an admin account.

btw.. been using your pages for years..very helpful!

[Black Viper]

Interesting point.
I attempted to recreate the issue and it seems as though I had my wires crossed. My apologies.

... 15 minutes later...

Web site information updated to reflect the change.
I also modified the Custom Services Registry Tools to not allow Software Licensing to be changed.
Thanks for the report!