Cannot Start Exchange Services or Active Directory Snap-ins After You Install Service Pack 2 (SP2) for Windows 2000

After you install Service Pack 2 (SP2) for Microsoft Windows 2000, you may experience one or both of the following behaviors:

• Microsoft Exchange 2000 Server-related services do not start.
• When you try to start an Active Directory directory service-related snap-in, such as the Active Directory Users and Computers snap-in, you receive an error message similar to the following:
  Naming information cannot be located, because the server is not operational.

This issue may occur if the Microsoft Winsock Proxy client is installed on the computer on which you install Service Pack 2 for Windows 2000.

To work around this issue, use one of the following methods.

Method 1: Windows 2000 Domain Controllers

If you do not have to have the Winsock Proxy Client program, remove it. Active Directory snap-ins work correctly when this program is removed.

Method 2: Windows 2000 Servers Running Exchange 2000 Server

If you have to have the Winsock Proxy Client program, remove Service Pack 2, and then reinstall Service Pack 1 for Windows 2000.

If you did not back up the Windows 2000 Service Pack 1 files during the SP2 update, use the Windows 2000 File Checker utility (Sfc.exe) to restore the original Windows 2000 protected operating system files, and then re-apply Service Pack 1 for Windows 2000.

For additional information about the Sfc.exe utility, click the article numbers below to view the articles in the Microsoft Knowledge Base: To obtain Service Pack 1 for Windows 2000, please visit the following Microsoft Web site:

Microsoft has confirmed that this is a problem in the Microsoft products that are listed at the beginning of this article.