Hello! Just bought a new computer with Win 7 Professional x64. My last OS was XP. It's been a whole new world to get used to with these crazy permission and "childproofing" measures in place, but I digress. This particular problem is apparently as age-old as Windows 7 (and Vista) get. I've been reading countless threads dating as far back as 2007 about the Diagnostics Policy Service and the various cures suggested when it stops working. NOT ONE of these cures has worked for me. I'm about to restore my system back to factory for the THIRD time in its first week because the DPS refuses to cooperate. I've tried literally everything I know and everything I've read, including: 1. Shortcut to Local Connection on my desktop, but "Enable" routes back through the DPS upon trying to reconnect. No offense Microsoft, but how dumb is that?? Every building has to have an emergency fire exit, ya know? 2. System Restore, both through Windows and the recovery tools. Restoring through Windows enabled me to reconnect to the Internet, but it did not restore the DPS. Restoring through recovery tools resulted in an error message stating the restore was unsuccessful. However, when the system booted into Windows, the Windows message said it was successful. Huh? Neither one, successful or not, has worked to restore the DPS. Or should I say "any" one, since I've tried this countless times! 3. MSConfig and the Services menu. No dice. All I get is "The DPS has started and stopped, etc." 4. Permissions. Trusted Installer and Local Service have the correct permissions. So do I. Doesn't seem to matter who owns it or what permissions we have, none of us can get this @#$% service to restart. 5. Device Manager. I've tried to uninstall the Network card (the only component I have under "Network") and let Windows Hardware reinstall it, which has apparently worked for some. Not for me. Windows installs the card just fine, but refuses to resuscitate the DPS. 6. Arthur's Registry Edit, found in this thread: http://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/en/w7itprogeneral/thread/7658e408-b4e9-4853-b087-e16b9999e916 7. Windows "Repair" or "Upgrade" install. Which was unsuccessful (presumably) because I'm trying to install the same software I already have. For the hours it took to find that out, at this early stage it's faster to restore back to factory. 8. One thing I've noticed, that I haven't seen mentioned anywhere else. The file that supposedly runs the DPS, dps.dll, doesn't "exist" on my system. The file is there, but when I try to open it in Notepad, I receive an error message stating, "This file does not exist. Would you like to create it?" Howevever, when I open any other .dll file in Notepad, no errors and the usual gobbeldygook appear. So I tried to replace dps.dll with another copy. No change - of course! Okay, so what next, folks? I can't keep restoring back to factory every time this stupid service arbitrarily decides I shouldn't be connected to the Internet. Whatever corruption in the software that causes the DPS to fail should have been addressed long ago! At the very least, a reliable contingency plan implemented. It's completely ridiculous (among other things!) to leave users stranded this way. I hope someone can suggest a permanent fix . . . please! And thank you! Over here, Windows 7 has been anything less than heaven, let me tell you. :p

Speaking as one who knows, there is no solution. You should just set Diagnostic Policy Service to Disabled and forget about it. There, see how much simpler life is ? Your system will run perfectly fine without it. And if you have no network issues, DPS is irrelevant.

Thanks for your reply, fanfarenj. If you're speaking as one who knows, you must work for Microsoft. Which explains the idiocy of your answer. "And if you have no network issues, DPS is irrelevant." That's a big if, wouldn't you say? I'd be equally stupid if I took that bet, considering I'm restoring back to factory for the third time in a week because of it. Next?

I'm sorry I should have been more careful. My system ( Windows Vista Ultimate 32-bit) will run perfectly fine without it. In spite of network issues. I see that you claim "this stupid [DPS] service arbitrarily decides I shouldn't be connected to the Internet". That's not my experience. If you think DPS is "disconnecting" you from the Internet, isn't that further motivation that you should disable it? Anyway, I don't work for Microsoft.