# [SOLVED] Re-installing the &quot;Browser Support Driver&quot;



## oukourj (Jul 15, 2013)

Hi @ all !

Got a little problem with the Workstation service...
Here's what I know and what I've done :


For unknown reasons, the Workstation service doesn't start anymore (eventmgr.msc : _"The Workstation service depends the following service: bowser. This service might not be installed."_).
I don't have a restore point I can use (problem has been there for long, but didn't worry me before - now needing it).
The list of dependencies for Workstation is

DEPENDENCIES : bowser
: MRxSmb10
: MRxSmb20
: NSI


NSI is UP
MRxSmb10 and 20 seem to be working (responding normally to "sc qc").
However :


```
C:\Windows\system32>sc qc bowser
[SC] OpenService FAILED 1060:

The specified service does not exist as an installed service.
```
So here we are.
The *bowser* (and not browser !!) service/driver is missing (long name *Browser Support Driver*).

*I've done :*


checkdisk
sfc
Tweaking.com "Autorepair" (repair soft that seems pretty serious)
I checked that %systemroot%\system32\DRIVERS\bowser.sys is present and used the Automated restore from that website :
Browser Support Driver - Windows 7 Service - batcmd.com
Crawled Google for hours now but only found information on the "Computer Browser" service (aka. Browser).
Tried starting it with "sc start bowser", but same error: (_The specified service does not exist as an installed service._)
The question is pretty simple : how do I reinstall that bowser service ??

Thanks a lot for your help !!

Alex


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## Tomken15 (Dec 7, 2011)

*Re: Re-installing the "Browser Support Driver"*

Are you using a separate Win 7 machine now to post with ?


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## oukourj (Jul 15, 2013)

*Re: Re-installing the "Browser Support Driver"*

No... my WLAN connexion works well !

But my wired connexion doesn't work. It's precisely my final purpose


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## oukourj (Jul 15, 2013)

*Re: Re-installing the "Browser Support Driver"*

Any hint on installing the "bowser" service ?


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## Tomken15 (Dec 7, 2011)

*Re: Re-installing the "Browser Support Driver"*

What I had in mind was if you had access to another Win 7 machine you could copy the file onto something like a USB Flash then drag and drop it into System32\drivers on the affected machine.

If you have a Win 7 install disk that you could boot up with and select Repair and then Cmd Prompt from the options - assuming Win 7 is in C:\ you could run a sfc /scannow in the Recovery Environment with this cmd -

*sfc /scannow /offbootdir=C:\ /offwindir=C:\Windows*

There is a space before each forward slash.


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## jenae (Jun 17, 2008)

*Re: Re-installing the "Browser Support Driver"*

Hi, there is no "bowser" service it simply does not exist as a windows service, there is a Browser service, the 1060 error indicates this.

Go to start search and type:- cmd right click on the returned cmd.exe and select "run as administrator" at the prompt copy paste:-


```
reg query "HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\Browser" /s > 0 & notepad 0
```
 press enter, please post the notepad outcome here.

If it indeed does say "bowser" you are infected and will need to post at our security forum.


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## oukourj (Jul 15, 2013)

*Re: Re-installing the "Browser Support Driver"*

Hi jenae and thanks for the input !
Your querry return normal information about the Browser service.

BTW, I think I'm really looking for "bowser" (watch those two links : )
- » Workstation ([click the Win7 tab] you see down that the dependency for Workstation is Browser Support Driver) &
- Browser Support Driver - Windows 7 Service - batcmd.com (this page shows that bowser is Browser Support Driver).

I'm not sure it's a service though it is sometime named that way.

@Tomken: Gotta find a valid CD and test this very soon ! I'll let you know.


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## jenae (Jun 17, 2008)

*Re: Re-installing the "Browser Support Driver"*

Hi, could we have the reg query as asked for, bowser is a driver file located in c:\windows\system32\drivers, it is as I said not a service. If corrupt then sfc offline is the best way to repair, if it is showing in services as I said you are effected. Who determined it was corrupt, and by what method, very rare in a home computer, we normally only see this in a server.

You can expand a copy from your OS dvd if sfc fails, this is the best way to fix it.


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## oukourj (Jul 15, 2013)

*Re: Re-installing the "Browser Support Driver"*

[email protected],

I finally reinstalled 7 and it's obviously alright now.

BUT, for the record, just note that now a :

```
sc qc bowser
```
(note the "bowser", and not "browser") gives a SUCCESS reply with the usual details about the service, when it did reply a FAILURE before.

Thanks for your help and time anyways ! :3-japsmil

Alex


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## jenae (Jun 17, 2008)

Hi, actually you are correct, it is a service, albeit a system file (driver) that loads on boot. I have it in my services registry, an old dog can discover new things everyday. I simply missed it when I first looked. Thanks


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## oukourj (Jul 15, 2013)

Hey !
I'm happy to hear you learned something 

The problem still is a mystery for me as the file was here, and seemed not to be corrupt...
I even replaced it with one from a databank on the internet (that seemed legit... --> file had exact same size).
If, as you say, it automatically loads on startup, I cannot understand what was wrong...

Now that I think it twice, I remember that one of the errors in eventmgr was that a file was missing. Probably this one. But as it was not missing, it must have been a wrong path in the registry !
That's my best guess but it's late to test now 

Regards,
Alex


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