There is a (somewhat outdated) SBS 2003 server on our network, and as we have discovered, the License Logging Service keeps wanting to restart. It is generally not possible to stop it for any length of time. Even disabling it doesn’t work – it keeps coming back on. It isn’t that we’re trying to get around any licensing requirements, but we are trying to upgrade to a new server, and it seems that SBS doesn’t want any part of that process.
Luckily there is actually a way to stop it, get rid of the warnings and keep SBS from complaining.
I have seen other reports that you have to have Process Explorer. I didn’t need it. If you do, you can find it here.
First, locate the SBS Core executable. It should be here:
C:\Windows\system32\sbscrexe.exe
Once you do, change the permissions. Locate the file, right click and change the EVERYONE permission to DENY. That’s right, DENY permission.
Next, start task manager (right-click the taskbar) and kill the process. Because of the permission change, it won’t be able to restart. You’re almost there. In fact, at this point, it is really done, but just to make sure you don’t get any errors, there is one more change you should make.
Start regedit and locate this key:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\SBCore
Right-click and set the administrator permission to full access, replacing permissions on child nodes as well. Once you do, you can refresh (F5) and change the “Start” DWORD from 2 to 4. This makes it disabled. That should do the trick. In fact, you don’t even really have to change it manually – once you change the permission correctly, you can make the change in Services, as long as it’s no longer running.
Based loosely on this article – check it if you have any problems.