SOS Server 4.x won't start - Illegal Characters in Path

[lbauer]

This article applies to SOS versions 4.1 and earlier. This bug was fixed in SOS 4.1.2.

A bug in the SOS 4.1 installer causes quotation marks to be added to the path to SOSSvrSvs in the registry during SOS Server installation. This prevents the SOS Server Service from starting.

The following error is logged in the Event Viewer:

Service cannot be started. System.ArgumentException: Illegal characters in path.

To fix:

Open Regedit and find this key:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\ControlSet001\Services\SosSvrSvc.net

If there are quotes around

C:\Program Files\SourceOffSite Server4\SosService.exe,

delete them and the service should now start.

This does not affect machines if the SOS Server was installed before the new service packs were installed.