JSI Tip 8980. The DFS service on Windows Server 2003 in a Windows NT 4.0 domain takes a long time to start?

The DFSSVC (Distributed File System) service takes a long time to start, sometimes 30 minutes, on Windows Server 2003 in a Windows NT 4.0 domain.

This behavior is due to the site-awareness feature in Windows Server 2003 DFS that searches for resources to make them available to DFS clients.

To workaround this behavior:

1. Open a CMD.EXE window.

2. Type the following command and press Enter:

reg add "HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\Dfs\Parameters" /V DfsDisableSiteAwareness /T REG_DWORD /D 1 /F

NOTE: For Windows 2000 DFS, see How do I disable Site awareness for Windows 2000 DFS in a Windows NT 4.0 domain?