How to reset Services.msc console

Question

After updating to Internet Explorer 9 on a Server 2008 R2 SP1 box, I noticed that my services.msc console looked a little off. If you check out the screenshot (http://www.flickr.com/photos/nosenseworrying/8614996608/in/photostream), you'll notice a huge gap at the top of the window before the list of services starts.

Is there any way to reset this window's display? Functionally, everything seems to work OK, but I'm a little leery of this, because I'm not sure what other issues may be present on the system now.

I confirmed that IE9 was in fact the issue, because the issue goes away if I uninstall the update.

Any help is greatly appreciated. Thanks!

Update: This is the closest I've gotten to finding anything similar to my case: http://forum.kaspersky.com/index.php?showtopic=218082 Unfortunately, they just say it's due to an "improper" install of IE9 and don't go into any detail. Basically, I'm still at a loss.

Solution 1

I found an old Windows XP website that tells you how to fix this. I had the same issue. You have to run "regsvr32.exe jscript.dll" as administrator to correct this.

http://www.winhelponline.com/blog/fix-services-mmc-extended-view-blank-xp/

Solution 2

Interesting..

Now, is it ONLY the services dialog that does this? Do you see the same behavior if you were to open up the Computer Management MMC ( compmgmt.msc )?

While I do not know how to reset the view of the MMC, what you could do is create a new custom MMC (that is, as long as the services dialog is the only one with this issue) by doing the following

1. Start > Run > type mmc > press enter
2. File > Add/Remove Snap In
3. Select Services from the available snap ins
4. Click Add
5. Select Local Computer and click Finish
6. Click OK
7. Go to File > Save As
8. Save the file as Services.mmc (to wherever)
9. Add the Services.mmc to C:\Windows\System32 and just remember to type services.mmc instead of msc

Comments

[MikeAWood]

Does it do it when you select the "standard" tab at the bottom as well?

[Matt]

Hi Mike -- no it does not. The standard tab looks completely normal. I've been using that instead in the meantime, but it still really bothers me that the default tab is messed up.

[Matt]

Thanks for the quick reply. As far as I can tell, so far it is with services.msc only. I've tried a couple other ones (including gpedit, and now compmgmt) and I don't see the same issue. I actually thought of your proposal too -- great minds think alike. Unfortunately, even in the MMC, it shows the same problem. So odd! Even stranger still, if I run this services.msc (or even mmc) from another server via UNC, the problem doesn't show up. So, it's almost like there's nothing wrong with the mmc, but something else underlying.

[Matt]

Thanks for the suggestion. Unfortunately, this did not resolve the issue. No matter who I log into the server as, I see the problem, so it appears to be deeper than a user profile issue. I'm not sure what files the IE9 install modified, but it sure did something odd here.

[Matt]

Thanks! I was looking for a blog post like this and always came up empty. Clearly your Googling skills are superior to mine ;)

[brianeme]

My trick to finding it was that you have 2 views at the bottom in services.msc, Extended (default) and Standard. I search for these words without quotes "mmc extended view top of window" Because this only appeared to be happening on Extended view I was able to narrow it down with that keyword.