Smart Card (SCardSvr) Service Defaults in Windows 11
Manages access to smart cards read by your computer. If this service is stopped, your computer will be unable to read smart cards. If this service is disabled, any services that explicitly depend on it will fail to start.
Default Settings
| Startup type: | Manual |
| Display name: | Smart Card |
| Service name: | SCardSvr |
| Service type: | share |
| Error control: | normal |
| Group: | SmartCardGroup |
| Object: | NT AUTHORITY\LocalService |
| Path: | %SystemRoot%\system32\svchost.exe -k LocalServiceAndNoImpersonation |
| File: | %SystemRoot%\System32\SCardSvr.dll |
| Registry key: | HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\SCardSvr |
| Privileges: |
|
Default Behavior
Smart Card is a Win32 service. In Windows 11 it starts only if the user, an application or another service starts it. When the Smart Card service is started, it logs on as NT AUTHORITY\LocalService and running in a shared process of svchost.exe. If Smart Card fails to start, the failure details will be recorded into Event Log. Then Windows 11 should boot up and notify the user about the SCardSvr service startup failure.
Restore Default Startup Configuration of Smart Card
1. Run the Command Prompt as an administrator.
2. Copy the command below, paste it into the command window and press ENTER:
sc config SCardSvr start= demand
3. Close the command window and restart the computer.
The SCardSvr service is using the SCardSvr.dll file that is located in the C:\Windows\System32 directory. If the file is removed or corrupted, read this article to restore its original version from Windows 11 installation media.