Vista's Cryptographic Services Service

March 31st, 2007 · Leave a Comment · 2,801 views
Tags: Services

With the importance of security in Vista, this is a service you’ll definitely be needing. Cryptographic Services is required for Windows Update and installing signed drivers, among other features of Vista. If you disable this, Vista will automatically set it back to Manual and start the service when needed, so there is little point in disabling it.

Display Name:

Cryptographic Services

Service Name:

CryptSvc

Process Name:

svchost.exe

Description:

Provides four management services: Catalog Database Service, which confirms the signatures of Windows files and allows new programs to be installed; Protected Root Service, which adds and removes Trusted Root Certification Authority certificates from this computer; Automatic Root Certificate Update Service, which retrieves root certificates from Windows Update and enable scenarios such as SSL; and Key Service, which helps enroll this computer for certificates. If this service is stopped, these management services will not function properly. If this service is disabled, any services that explicitly depend on it will fail to start.

Path to Executable:

%windir%\system32\svchost.exe -k Network Service

Default Startup:

Home Basic: Automatic
Home Premium: Automatic
Business: Automatic
Enterprise: Automatic
Ultimate: Automatic

Log On As:

Network Service

Desktop Interaction:

Depends On:

Remote Procedure Call (RPC)
- DCOM Server Process Launcher

Required For:

None

Memory:

N/A

CPU:

N/A

Do you know something about this service that I don't? Please leave a comment below so I, and everyone else reading this, can benefit from your knowledge!