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A week ago my dad's desktop was blank. I fixed it by doing a system restore. Today his desk top was blank again. I tried to do a system restore to an earlier date that didn't work so I tried another date. Still nothing. So i undid the last restore, then I did a system restore to the same date as the fisrt time. That worked. Then I did the windows up dates. Service pack 3 would not install. (I also tried to install and antivirus progam but I couldn't unistall norton 360)The error message said somithing about the cryptographic service not running. I went to Control Panel, Administrative tools and Services. I tried to start it from there i got an error 5: access denied. So, I tried it in safe mode i got Error 1068 the dependency service or group failed to start. I tried to do another system restore and got another error. I could not run system restore. I went back to Services to try and turn on system restore and got Error 1068 the dependency service or group failed to start. Every thing I try to start under Service gives me the same Error 1068. I downloaded registry easy to see if that would fix the problem. It worked once and then it crashed and won't work anymore, and it didn't fix anything. And somewhere during all of this the desktop went blank again. But before that and after trying to install service pack 3 the start menu and task bar seem to change to an older version. Right now I would just like to get past this Error 1068 and be able to turn on the system restore and the cryptographic service. If anyone knows how to fix this problem Please Help me.

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  • Latest Post Latest Post by Klaudio

Dani AI

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Short, practical repair plan for (and for others like who are trying a fix). The symptoms — blank desktop, Service Pack 3 failing, “Error 5: Access denied” when touching Cryptographic Services, and widespread “Error 1068” for many services — are classic signs that the Cryptographic Service catalog (CatRoot2) or related crypto DLLs/permissions are corrupted or being blocked by third‑party security software. Microsoft’s troubleshooting for this exact failure sequence documents rebuilding CatRoot2 and reregistering cryptographic DLLs as the first step. (ftp.zx.net.nz)

Try this sequence from an Administrator command prompt (or boot to Safe Mode and log on as the built‑in Administrator if normal session returns “Access is denied”):

net stop cryptsvc
ren %systemroot%\system32\catroot2 oldcatroot2
net start cryptsvc

(then reregister crypto DLLs — example:)
regsvr32 /u softpub.dll
regsvr32 /u wintrust.dll
...
regsvr32 softpub.dll
regsvr32 wintrust.dll
...

sfc /scannow

The CatRoot2 rename plus reregistering the DLLs and then running System File Checker often restores the Cryptographic Service and lets Service Pack / Windows Update complete. Run SFC and follow its recommendations (it may require the original XP CD). (ftp.zx.net.nz)

If Norton 360 is present and refuses normal uninstall, use the official Norton Remove & Reinstall / Norton Removal Tool to fully remove the product, reboot, then repeat the CatRoot2/DLL/SFC steps — third‑party AV commonly blocks cryptographic and update operations. (support.norton.com)

Finally, verify service dependencies (RPC, Event Log, Plug and Play, etc.) are set to Automatic and running — Error 1068 means a dependency failed and Microsoft documents checking those services first. Back up the registry and any data before editing or importing keys. If the system shows other infection signs (hard to uninstall AV, unexpected behavior), run an offline malware scan (bootable rescue or Defender/Microsoft Safety Scanner) before repeating repairs. (support.microsoft.com)

Notes/cautions: always back up the registry and important files before registry edits; if any step fails with “access denied” while using the Administrator account, stop and capture exact error messages — that detail is important for the next troubleshooting stage.

Member Avatar for Klaudio

Well, a similar error ocured by me. Ill try this sollution, and of course I trust You. Sometimes Im getting tyred of treths. Regarads from Porec in Croatia.

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