I was googling a problem with my computer, and only found 8 similar problems, anywhere Google's spiders dared to venture. One of those eight was this site, and the problem was never really solved, so I'll post my solution here in case someone else ends up in my shoes. When my laptop started up, I got nothing but a dialogue box that said "lsass.exe operation failed" in its title and "The operation could not be completed succesfully" as its content, and gave me the option of pressing "Ok" or... well, that was the only option. I could close the dialogue box, but either way the computer rebooted. The same thing happened in safe mode, and I was unable to find any of the common names for the sasser worm anywhere on my drive when I dug through it in dos. I nonetheless still had my suspicions about a new sasser worm variant, and went googling for a few good hours. The original error was caused by a corrupt registry, not the sasser worm. I realized this when I realized one of the things lsass has to read is, well, your computer's name. I had recently changed my computer's name in CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\MS Setup (ACME)\User Info, right after installing service pack 2. For posterity, don't do what I did. One of the problems may have been the length of the user name I chose; I have not been able to determine that as of yet. The way I solved the problem, since I couldn't do a thing with the laptop (since the OS wouldn't load /at all/), is just grabbed a dos disk, copied the corrupt system hive (windows directory\system32\config\system) into a temporary directory, and copied the default microsoft backup (windows directory\repair\system) over the corrupt hive. It did the trick. Microsoft would have you believe you have to copy every backup hive over, AND that this wouldn't work if XP wasn't "your OEM (manufacturer installed) OS" on their tech support websites. These claims are, well, not true (although may apply to to the passwords; the only hive I copied over was system and XP is not my original installed OS). If you decide not to dissect the corrupt registry hive you've backed up, the backup won't wipe out any of your software registry associations, and you'll only have to reconfigure (and possibly reinstall) a couple device drivers. Also, you'll be stuck looking at 640 x 480 resolution for half a second. Hope this helps anyone googling in the future.

Hi Yesterday i installed zonealarm, cauze everytime i connected to inet after 30-45 maybe even 10 mins a window msg blinked up with a critical error process.Service.exe had an critical error - Shutdown in 60 secs. @ 3 oclock in the morning i decided something to do... =) I got win2k pro edition, so a reinstallion was out of mind.This system is now running 3 years without problems and before i format i can try to solve that problem again by search and destroy. First i opened google,thought it was a BLASTER virus, it isnt.Nothing of the written symptones was shown up like msblast.exe @ taskmngr.Then i thought it was a sassler virus,it isnt too.I reminded that i got service pack4 and all those f---in microsoft updates,so how could this patches again be tricked out?I searched for new updates or something what was written and had the same dignostic in my problems. I found some crazy s---.It was to high for me... Running Windows with No Services A Windows service provides functionality to the operating system and user accounts regardless of whether anyone is logged into a system. Windows XP comes with around four dozen services enabled by default, including ones that many people consider superfluous like Remote Registry, Alerter, and SSDP Discovery (Universal Plug and Play). A question many Windows administrators commonly have is therefore, which services can I safely disable? What if I told you that for at least basic functionality like Web surfing and application execution, Windows doesn’t need any services? In fact, you can also do those things without system processes like Winlogon.exe, the interactive logon manager, and Lsass, the local security authority subsystem. The following steps, which you must follow carefully to achieve a minimal Windows system, were derived by Dave Solomon through experimentation, and when he discovered that Windows was usable without all the core system processes we were dumbfounded. After figuring this out he and I polled senior Windows experts like the vice president of the Core Operating Systems Division, the technical lead of the Virtual PC team, and a lead Windows security architect to see if they thought that Windows would function at all, much less if Internet Explorer would work, without the support of Winlogon, Lsass, and services, and the unanimous answer was ‘no’. Even after we showed them the demonstration I’m about to share with you they all thought that we’d staged some kind of trick. There is the experiment also written...watch out http://www.sysinternals.com/blog/2005/07/running-windows-with-no-services.html K now i was remebering, a friend got thos problems too(system start in 60 secs)BUT only then if he closed his firewall.Strange, but ok!I installed ZoneAlarm and tried it out.First i was like the most of here and asked me, what f--- is a generic host process for win32 service. I opened again google and arrived here. =) I read, some say a important win utility,i matched out now it isnt.The firewall is askin me for connection authority.In my first thought, i handled this problem so.Block everything what u dont know, and then take time actived minimum settings to get in inet.In my situation i allowed first only EnterNet.exe and AvGuard a connection to inet.Then i realized, i cant use firefox even itz registraded in zonealarm.I checkt the list, thier i found. AvGuard control prorogram Anwendung für dienste und controller (dont know how to translate =P ) EnterNet.exe FireFox Generic Host Proces for win32 Services Outlook Express Spooler SubSystem App ssl.exe Zone Labs Client Now, i know Av was safe,EnterNet.exe i need for inet.Firefox is safe Zone Labs too, outlook too.K but.. wtf is -> Anwendung für dienste und controller Generic Host Proces for win32 Services Spooler SubSystem App ssl.exe I opned firefox tried to get google, msg was blinkin up -> Anwendung für dienste und controller tries to connect at IP:blablabla I allowed and inet was workin.Nice Then i started to search the other things.All i know now is, deactived first Generic Host Process for Win32 Services u dont need it.Maybe i got a virus but i block it and all works fine... ssl.exe is a ircworm =P ... spooler i deactived too, but read about it if i get problems with LAN i should actived it. Maybe with my little storyline about Generic Host Process for win32 Sevices and my Firewall i could help some people. Try now ZoneAlar to configure but seems to not so izi..

You sir are a life saver! I had the exact problem. (nothing but a dialogue box that said "lsass.exe operation failed" in its title and "The operation could not be completed succesfully") I followed your advice and shazam! I'm up and running again. Many thanks, Ed