Ancillary Function Driver for Winsock (AFD) Service Defaults in Windows 7

Ancillary Function Driver for Winsock.

Default Settings

Startup type: System
Display name:Ancillary Function Driver for Winsock
Service name:AFD
Service type:kernel
Error control:normal
Group:PNP_TDI
Path:%SystemRoot%\system32\drivers\afd.sys
Registry key:HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\AFD

Default Behavior

Ancillary Function Driver for Winsock is a kernel device driver. In Windows 7 it is being loaded at Kernel initialization. If Ancillary Function Driver for Winsock fails to start, Windows 7 attempts to write the failure details into Event Log. Then Windows 7 startup should proceed and the user should be notified that the AFD service is not running because of the error.

Dependencies

If Ancillary Function Driver for Winsock is stopped, the following services cannot start:

Restore Default Startup Configuration of Ancillary Function Driver for Winsock

1. Run the Command Prompt as an administrator.

2. Copy the commands below, paste them into the command window and press ENTER:

sc config AFD start= system
sc start AFD

3. Close the command window and restart the computer.

The AFD service is using the afd.sys file that is located in the C:\Windows\system32\drivers directory. If the file is removed or corrupted, read this article to restore its original version from Windows 7 installation media.