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Display Name (?):

Workstation

Short Name (?):

lanmanworkstation

Executable (?):

svchost.exe

Library (?):

wkssvc.dll

Depends On (?):

None.

Supports (?):

Alerter, Computer Browser, Distributed File System, Messenger, Net Logon, Remote Procedure Call (RPC) Locator

Description (?):

Creates and maintains client network connections to remote servers. If this service is stopped, these connections will be unavailable. If this service is disabled, any services that explicitly depend on it will fail to start.

OS (?):

NT4 Workstation, 2000 Professional, XP Home/Professional, Vista Home/Business

Startup (?):

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

Explanation (?):

The workstation service is used in providing the client side of Microsoft server services. It provides UNC mapping (such as \\computername) through NetBIOS names that allows you to connect to remote Windows file shares and use remote printers (not related to TCPIP printers or local printers). This service is a wrapper for client functions for the "Client for Microsoft Networks".

If you are not on a file sharing network then it may not be bad idea to set this service to disabled. A file sharing network simply means a private network (called a LAN) in which you have multiple machines that share files or printers with each other. Windows file sharing can also traverse the Internet, but some ISPs filter this traffic as it opens up Windows based computers to a slew of problems. Various Microsoft abilities depend upon this service. A good example of this is the Messenger service that was designed to send Alerter service messages on a corporate network, but is generally used to send spam popups over the Internet. If you set this service to disabled then you should be sure to disable the server service, and you may also want to uninstall the "Client for Microsoft Networks".