Failure in initializing the telnet session. Shell process may not have been launched. Telnet...

When you try to use the Telnet client to connect to a Windows XP 64-Bit Professional computer that is running the Telnet service, you may receive the following error message:

To resolve this problem, follow these steps:

1. At a command prompt on the Windows XP 64-bit Professional host that is running the Telnet service, type cd %systemroot%\system32, and then press ENTER.
2. Type net stop tlntsvr, and then press ENTER.
3. Type tlntsvr /unregserver, and then press ENTER.
4. Type tlntsvr /service, and then press ENTER.
5. Type net start tlntsvr, and then press ENTER. Telnet connections to the Telnet service should now be accepted.

Note Do not follow these steps on a Microsoft Windows Server 2003-based domain controller because the tlntsvr /service command to reinstall the service will not work. The command calls the computername\Telnetclient group, but this group does not exist on domain controllers. In Windows Server 2003, you must demote the domain controller to a member server, run the tlntsvr /service command to reinstall the service, and then repromote the server to a domain controller.

Microsoft has confirmed that this is a bug in the Microsoft products that are listed in the "Applies to" section.

Tlntsvr.exe is located in the %SYSTEMROOT%\System32 folder.