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Display Name (?):

Application Experience Lookup Service

Short Name (?):

AeLookupSvc

Executable (?):

svchost.exe -k netsvcs

Library (?):

aelupsvc.dll

Depends On (?):

None.

Supports (?):

None.

Description (?):

Process application compatibility lookup requests for applications as they are launched.

OS (?):

Server 2003

Startup (?):

Default	Home	Workstation	Server	Minimal	Tweaked	Automatic
Automatic	Manual	Manual	Automatic	Manual	Disabled	Disabled

Explanation (?):

The application experience lookup service is a part of the Application Compatibility Administrator and it's supposed to provide support for Windows 2003 computers on a domain, although it provides no network functionality. It was added in Service Pack 1 of Windows Server 2003 as a way to mitigate disruption of application serving from the update process. It is supposed to be a database of sorts that warns of compatibility issues and applies patches to software that needs it. This is because Service Pack 1 created issues in many programs, and this service should help to relieve those issues so they work properly. This service will also provide compatibility fixes for upcoming Windows Server 2003 updates. Any application that has a known compatibility problem but was not fixed from this service will present a help article for the administrator.

There are a few configuration options for this service other than the typical service options such as setting its startup run state and such. These options are located in the group policies under Computer Configuration \ Administrative Templates \ Application Compatibility, but there is very little customization you can apply besides enabling or disabling the feature. It should be noted that if you disable it from group policy that the service will continue to run, although it will do nothing.

If you do not wish to use this option you can safely disable this service, but you may want to disable it in group policy as well to prevent from confusing the system. However, it is a useful tool that you most likely would want to leave running unless you are running under strict memory constraints.