{"id":11016,"date":"2023-02-26T03:46:41","date_gmt":"2023-02-26T11:46:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.coretechnologies.com\/blog\/?p=11016"},"modified":"2023-03-06T06:05:09","modified_gmt":"2023-03-06T14:05:09","slug":"profsvc","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.coretechnologies.com\/blog\/windows-services\/profsvc\/","title":{"rendered":"Essential Windows Services: User Profile Service \/ ProfSvc"},"content":{"rendered":"<div align=\"center\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"no-lazy-load\" src=\"\/blog\/images\/user-profile-service-150x150.webp\" title=\"User Profile Service\" alt=\"User Profile Service\" border=\"0\" width=\"150\" height=\"150\"><\/div>\n<div id=\"blog-toc-container\" style=\"margin-top:20px;\">\n<p id=\"blog-toc-title\">In this article&#8230;<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"#what-is-profsvc-service\">What is the User Profile Service (ProfSvc) service?<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"#stop-user-profile-service\">What happens if I stop ProfSvc?<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"#ok-to-disable-profsvc\">Is it OK to disable User Profile Service?<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"#profsvc-questions\">Questions? Problems?<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n<p><a name=\"what-is-profsvc-service\"><\/a><\/p>\n<h2 class=\"blog-caption\">What is the User Profile Service (ProfSvc) service?<\/h2>\n<p>The ProfSvc Windows Service is responsible for loading and unloading user profiles &mdash; collections of settings and information associated with each Windows account. It&#8217;s also an integral component of <a href=\"https:\/\/learn.microsoft.com\/en-us\/sharepoint\/install\/user-profile-service-overview\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">SharePoint server<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>The service\u2019s display name is <b>User Profile Service<\/b> and it runs as <a href=\"https:\/\/learn.microsoft.com\/en-us\/windows\/win32\/services\/localsystem-account\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">LocalSystem<\/a> inside the service host process, <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Svchost.exe\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">svchost.exe<\/a>. By default, the service is set to start automatically when your computer boots:<\/p>\n<div align=\"center\"><a href=\"\/blog\/images\/user-profile-windows-service.png\" class=\"zoomPopup\" title=\"The User Profile Windows Service\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"image-padding\" src=\"\/blog\/images\/user-profile-windows-service.png\" title=\"The User Profile Windows Service (click to enlarge)\" alt=\"The User Profile Windows Service\" border=\"0\" width=\"406\" height=\"468\" \/><\/a><\/div>\n<p><a name=\"stop-user-profile-service\"><\/a><\/p>\n<h2 class=\"blog-caption\">What happens if I stop ProfSvc?<\/h2>\n<p>The service&#8217;s description cautions:<\/p>\n<div class=\"blog-qa-question-box\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"\/images\/quotes-transparent-21x21.png\" width=\"21\" height=\"21\" \/>&nbsp;If this service is stopped or disabled, users will no longer be able to successfully sign in or sign out, apps might have problems getting to users&#8217; data, and components registered to receive profile event notifications won&#8217;t receive them.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>If none of that functionality seems important to you and you try to stop the service, doing so will force several dependent services to stop as well. There are three of those on our Windows 11 PC:<\/p>\n<div align=\"center\"><a href=\"\/blog\/images\/stop-user-profile-service.png\" class=\"zoomPopup\" title=\"Attempting to stop ProfSvc\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"image-padding\" src=\"\/blog\/images\/stop-user-profile-service.png\" title=\"Attempting to stop ProfSvc (click to enlarge)\" alt=\"Attempting to stop ProfSvc\" border=\"0\" width=\"380\" height=\"276\" \/><\/a><\/div>\n<p>However, even after clicking &#8220;Yes&#8221; to proceed, User Profile Service failed to stop. The following error was presented:<\/p>\n<div align=\"center\"><a href=\"\/blog\/images\/failed-to-stop-profsvc-service.png\" class=\"zoomPopup\" title=\"Failed to stop ProfSvc\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"image-padding\" src=\"\/blog\/images\/failed-to-stop-profsvc-service.png\" title=\"Failed to stop ProfSvc (click to enlarge)\" alt=\"Failed to stop ProfSvc\" border=\"0\" \/><\/a><\/div>\n<p>And even worse, trying to stop the service left our machine in an inconsistent state. From then on, Windows refused to start some applications (like Task Manager):<\/p>\n<div align=\"center\"><a href=\"\/blog\/images\/unable-to-start-task-manager.png\" class=\"zoomPopup\" title=\"Unable to start Task Manager\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"image-padding\" src=\"\/blog\/images\/unable-to-start-task-manager.png\" title=\"Unable to start Task Manager (click to enlarge)\" alt=\"Unable to start Task Manager\" border=\"0\" \/><\/a><\/div>\n<p>We had to reboot to restore normal operation.<\/p>\n<p>Apparently the User Profile service is more important than it appears!<\/p>\n<p><a name=\"ok-to-disable-profsvc\"><\/a><\/p>\n<h2 class=\"blog-caption\">Is it OK to disable User Profile Service?<\/h2>\n<p>At the very least, disabling the service will prevent anyone from logging in to your computer.<\/p>\n<p>Unless you&#8217;re deliberately trying to block all access, including your own, that&#8217;s probably not a good idea.<\/p>\n<p>It&#8217;s best to leave the service enabled and set to start automatically at boot.<\/p>\n<p><a name=\"profsvc-questions\"><\/a><\/p>\n<h2 class=\"blog-caption\">Questions? Problems?<\/h2>\n<p>If you would like to know more about the User Profile service, or you have a specific problem, please feel free to <a href=\"\/support\/\">get in touch<\/a>. We will do our best to help you!<\/p>\n<div align=\"center\">\n<div class=\"cta-button-1\">\n<table role=\"presentation\" cellspacing=\"0\" cellpadding=\"0\" border=\"0\" align=\"left\">\n<tbody>\n<tr>\n<td align=\"center\"><a href=\"\/blog\/tag\/essential-windows-services\/\" title=\"Find more important Windows Services\"><span><nobr>More Essential Windows Services&#8230;<\/nobr><\/span><\/a><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<!-- relpost-thumb-wrapper --><div class=\"relpost-thumb-wrapper\"><!-- filter-class --><div class=\"relpost-thumb-container\"><style>.relpost-block-single-image, .relpost-post-image { margin-bottom: 10px; }<\/style><h3>You may also like...<\/h3><div style=\"clear: both\"><\/div><div style=\"clear: both\"><\/div><!-- relpost-block-container --><div class=\"relpost-block-container relpost-block-column-layout\" style=\"--relposth-columns: 3;--relposth-columns_t: 2; --relposth-columns_m: 2\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.coretechnologies.com\/blog\/windows-services\/w32time\/\"class=\"relpost-block-single\" ><div class=\"relpost-custom-block-single\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"relpost-block-single-image\" alt=\"Essential Windows Services: Windows Time \/ W32Time\"  src=\"https:\/\/www.coretechnologies.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/windows-time-service-150x150-1.webp\" style=\"aspect-ratio:1\/1\" style=\"aspect-ratio:1\/1\"><\/img><div class=\"relpost-block-single-text\"  style=\"height: 75px;font-family: Arial;  font-size: 12px;  color: #333333;\"><h2 class=\"relpost_card_title\">Essential Windows Services: Windows Time \/ W32Time<\/h2><\/div><\/div><\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/www.coretechnologies.com\/blog\/windows-services\/essential-tools-windows-services-sc-exe\/\"class=\"relpost-block-single\" ><div class=\"relpost-custom-block-single\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"relpost-block-single-image\" alt=\"Use SC.EXE to manage your Windows Service\"  src=\"https:\/\/www.coretechnologies.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/windows-sc-command-150x150.png\" style=\"aspect-ratio:1\/1\" style=\"aspect-ratio:1\/1\"><\/img><div class=\"relpost-block-single-text\"  style=\"height: 75px;font-family: Arial;  font-size: 12px;  color: #333333;\"><h2 class=\"relpost_card_title\">Essential Tools for Windows Services: SC.EXE<\/h2><\/div><\/div><\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/www.coretechnologies.com\/blog\/alwaysup\/legacy-application-network-drives\/\"class=\"relpost-block-single\" ><div class=\"relpost-custom-block-single\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"relpost-block-single-image\" alt=\"Q&amp;A: Can my Legacy Application Read Network Drives when Run as a Service?\"  src=\"https:\/\/www.coretechnologies.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/file-share-150x150.png\" style=\"aspect-ratio:1\/1\" style=\"aspect-ratio:1\/1\"><\/img><div class=\"relpost-block-single-text\"  style=\"height: 75px;font-family: Arial;  font-size: 12px;  color: #333333;\"><h2 class=\"relpost_card_title\">Q&amp;A: Can my Legacy Application Read Network Drives when Run as a Service?<\/h2><\/div><\/div><\/a><\/div><!-- close relpost-block-container --><div style=\"clear: both\"><\/div><\/div><!-- close filter class --><\/div><!-- close relpost-thumb-wrapper -->","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In this article&#8230; What is the User Profile Service (ProfSvc) service? What happens if I stop ProfSvc? Is it OK to disable User Profile Service? Questions? Problems? What is the User Profile Service (ProfSvc) service? The ProfSvc Windows Service is &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.coretechnologies.com\/blog\/windows-services\/profsvc\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":11684,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[78,310,311,196],"class_list":["post-11016","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-windows-services","tag-essential-windows-services","tag-profsvc","tag-user-profile-service","tag-windows-services-2"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.coretechnologies.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11016","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.coretechnologies.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.coretechnologies.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.coretechnologies.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.coretechnologies.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11016"}],"version-history":[{"count":12,"href":"https:\/\/www.coretechnologies.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11016\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11873,"href":"https:\/\/www.coretechnologies.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11016\/revisions\/11873"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.coretechnologies.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11684"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.coretechnologies.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11016"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.coretechnologies.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11016"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.coretechnologies.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11016"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}