Knowledge Base

PRB: Screen Saver Fails to Run Due to a User32.dll Error

Article ID: 182562

Article Last Modified on 5/1/2004

Microsoft Win32 Application Programming Interface, when used with:
- Microsoft Windows NT 4.0
- Microsoft Windows 2000 Standard Edition
- Microsoft Windows XP Professional

This article was previously published under Q182562

SYMPTOMS

The Screen saver fails to run, and the following error message appears:

Initialization of the dynamic library <system>\system32\user32.dll failed. The process is terminating abnormally.

CAUSE

A process applied a NULL Discretionary Access Control List (DACL) to the WinSta0 Window Station.

RESOLUTION

A process should not apply a NULL DACL to the WinSta0 Window Station. Either an access control entry (ACE) should be added to the existing ACEs in the DACL, or, if the DACL is replaced, it should contain at least one ACE.

For more information on adding an ACE to the interactive Window Station and Desktop, please see the following article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

165194 INFO: CreateProcessAsUser, Windowstations and Desktops

STATUS

This behavior is by design.

Keywords: kbapi kbdll kbkernbase kbsecurity kbprb kbacl KB182562