Binary War

I encountered an issue where an Exchange 2003 System Attendant service would not start.  Consequently, the Information Store service could not be started either.

The root of the problem was that Active Directory was not functioning properly.

When attempting to open Active Directory Users and Computers (ADUC), I got an error stating “naming information cannot be located” and “library not registered”.

A few quick google searches revealed that something had happened to my activeds.tlb file and that I would need to re-register it.

The article I found was: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/887438

This worked like a charm and all my services were back up and running in no time.

In case that article is inaccessible, here is the important part:

1.  Start a text editor such as Notepad.
2.  Copy the following text, and then paste it into Notepad:

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\TypeLib\{97d25db0-0363-11cf-abc4-02608c9e7553}]

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\TypeLib\{97d25db0-0363-11cf-abc4-02608c9e7553}\1.0]
@="Active DS Type Library"

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\TypeLib\{97d25db0-0363-11cf-abc4-02608c9e7553}\1.0\0]

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\TypeLib\{97d25db0-0363-11cf-abc4-02608c9e7553}\1.0\0\win32]
@="C:\\WINDOWS\\System32\\activeds.tlb"

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\TypeLib\{97d25db0-0363-11cf-abc4-02608c9e7553}\1.0\FLAGS]
@="0"

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\TypeLib\{97d25db0-0363-11cf-abc4-02608c9e7553}\1.0\HELPDIR]
@="C:\\WINDOWS\\system32"

3.  Click File, click Save As, and then save the file.  Use a file name that is similar to the following:

Import.reg

Note that the file name extension must be .reg

4.  Click Start, click Run, type regedit, and then click OK.
5.  Click Registry, click Import Registry File, locate the registry file that you saved in step 3, and then click Open.
6.  Click OK, and then quit Registry Editor.