Had an old laptop with Windows 7 x64 Ultimate installed. Both the OS and laptop worked fine until recently. Fired up the laptop and suddenly got screwed up OS with the error message “The server process could not be started because the configured identity is incorrect. Check the Username and Password”.
While you can see the error and even understand it, still it confuses. Why suddenly there is an issue with the Admin username and password.
Experiencing “The server process could not be started because the configured identity is incorrect. Check the Username and Password”
While normal booting took less than 30 seconds to boot up, this time the OS took more than 2 minutes.
In rare cases, users also experienced two minutes wait for the “Waiting for Group Policy Client” message (which normally boots within a minute). After entering the password, OS spends another two minutes with “Please Wait For The User Profile Service…” (normally login is instantaneous).
Finally, the OS started with the following new changes:
- No Aero. Only basic grey Windows 2000-style GUI
2- No networking
3- A balloon message is shown in a tray:
- Failed to connect to a Windows Service
- Windows could not connect to the User Profile Service.
- This problem prevents standard users from logging on to the system…
4- Almost nothing works. Attempts to start Explorer cause this error message:
- EXPLORER.EXE
- The server process could not be started because the configured identity is incorrect. Check the username and password.
5- Attempt to start the Control Panel results in the following dialog box:
- Window title: {26ee0668-a00a-44d7-9371-beb064c98683}
- Message:
- {26ee0668-a00a-44d7-9371-beb064c98683}
- The server process could not be started because the configured identity is incorrect. Check the username and password.
6- Attempts to start most Windows programs results in the variation of the two messages above
7- The event log is not functional. Users aren’t able to go to Start>Run>Services and do start all event log services, as the OS states “Event Log Service is unavailable“.
8- System Restore to a point couple of days ago when everything worked did not help
9- while logging on under different user accounts (admin or non-admin), the user gets the same symptoms.
10- Trying to re-installing Windows 7 from DVD fails – it says “source is no longer available…” or something like that
Fix The Server Process could not be started
While others found chkdsk on the partition containing the problem 32bit OS, some experienced index errors in Safe mode others didn’t. Some suggestions were on the internet like:
- Boot into Safe Mode with Command Prompt.
- At the DOS prompt (CMD) window, type MSCONFIG and press Enter.
- When MSCONFIG opens click the Boot Options tab.
- Click the option for “Active Directory Repair“.
- Exit MSCONFIG, and reboot the PC
However; users are also suggested to use “sfc /scannow” on CMD while in Safe Mode. This way, any minor Windows issue causing the error with be fixed or at least brought to light.
First method to fix the error
All you have to do is to run the correct version of sysprep for the OS. We have used an ERD to access the file structure of the computer.
Then go to C:\Windows\System32\Sysprep and copied sysprep to the desktop of the Administrator user.
Then you will reboot the computer log on as administrator and run that sysprep.exe file that you copied earlier.
The sysprep utility will open, leave everything as Default and click on the OK button. The sysprep will eventually reboot your computer. The computer will now need to be configured as if it just came out of the box. Answer all questions as requested and you should now have normal access to your computer.
Second method to fix the error
Another way to fix the error is to access the registry. Now you might find an issue to access the registry directly due to the “The server process could not be started because the configured identity is incorrect. Check the Username and Password” error.
This way, you can’t open any folder using Windows Services. Instead, you are recommended to use CMD and then open Registry (try in Safe Mode).
Here you will navigate down and find;
registry HKLM\SYSTEM\SETUP\SystemSetupInProgressOnce you found the “registry HKLM\SYSTEM\SETUP\SystemSetupInProgress”, you will change its value from 1 to 0. After setting the value back to 0, you have solved the issue. Give your system a reboot and check for the issue.
Mostly, you will fix the error using these two methods. However; if the error persists even after applying the methods, then you are recommended to either use a backup image of your OS or do a reinstallation.
