On a Windows XP SP2 system where I saw the following error message when I tried to start the Remote Procedure Call (RPC) service, the problem was due to a missing
svchost.exe file in C:\Windows\System32\
| Services |
| Could not start the Remote Procedure Call
(RPC) service on Local Computer. Error 2: The system cannot find the file specified.
|
The location where svchost.exe should be located can be found in the registry at HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\RpcSs\ImagePath.
I copied the file from another Windows XP SP2 system. The file was 14KB and
was dated 8/4/2004 with an MD5 hash of 8f078ae4ed187aaabc0a305146de6716
.
I discovered the svchost.exe file was missing while trying to
determine why the taskbar wasn't displaying properly - it was 1/2 height
and couldn't be stretched, even though unlocked, there were no programs shown
on the taskbar, and the Start button was missing.
References:
