Windows/IIS - HTTP Service could not be stopped

Question

From what I've found this error is usually caused by Reporting Services, but Reporting Services is not installed on this server. Any ideas why net stop http doesn't fully work?

C:\Users\Administrator>net stop http
The following services are dependent on the HTTP service.
Stopping the HTTP service will also stop these services.

   Web Management Service
   World Wide Web Publishing Service
   Print Spooler
   Web Deployment Agent Service
   Function Discovery Resource Publication

Do you want to continue this operation? (Y/N) [N]: y
The Web Management Service service is stopping.
The Web Management Service service was stopped successfully.

The World Wide Web Publishing Service service is stopping.
The World Wide Web Publishing Service service was stopped successfully.

The Print Spooler service is stopping.
The Print Spooler service was stopped successfully.

The Web Deployment Agent Service service is stopping.
The Web Deployment Agent Service service was stopped successfully.

The Function Discovery Resource Publication service is stopping.
The Function Discovery Resource Publication service was stopped successfully.

The HTTP service is stopping........
The HTTP service could not be stopped.

score 3 · Answer 1 · edited Aug 18 '13 at 00:49

From: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2597817

Consider the following scenario. You are attempting to stop the HTTP service on a server running Internet Information Services (IIS) 6, 7, or 7.5. The server also has the Microsoft Web Deployment Service (MSDEPSVC) installed. When you try to stop the HTTP service using the NET STOP HTTP command line instruction, the following error message is displayed in the command prompt:

The HTTP service is stopping.....
The HTTP service could not be stopped.

If you run the NET STOP HTTP command again, the following message is displayed:

The service is starting or stopping. Please try again later.

See http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2597817 for more.

score 2 · Answer 2 · answered May 05 '13 at 01:30

2

You could use process explorer by sysinternals to see what files are locking the process. Also, have you checked if your anti-virus is locking it?

answered May 05 '13 at 01:30

Steve Schofield

429
2
4

score 2 · Answer 3 · edited Jan 10 '19 at 16:40

If you happen to have self-hosted web services running, stop them first before running net stop http. That will solve the issue too. This is just one of the symptom for 'The service is starting or stopping. Please try again later.'

In my case the solution explained in MS KB article http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2597817, didn't work. This is because the said service isn't present on my box 'Get-Service : Cannot find any service with service name 'MsDepSvc'.'

score 1 · Answer 4 · answered Mar 15 '18 at 21:51

I have struggled with this one a lot and I wasn't able to find a solution to stop the HTTP service. I have tried to replace

net stop http /y

with

iisreset /stop

It does the job in most cases. In the rest of the cases - restart the system is the workaround.

Windows/IIS - HTTP Service could not be stopped

4 Answers4