I've searched around for a solution, but it seems that most people want this to happen. I would like Windows Search to start up in Automatic mode on this machine. I set the service to Automatic, start it, and all is well. But...when the system restarts the service is set to Disabled startup mode. I don't know what process, or boot setting, or whatever it may be is causing this to happen. Event Log yields no suspects either.
Can any one here advise on how I might troubleshoot this issue? Any tools, utilities, etc. you would advise? I know about procmon, procexp, and the like, but this seems to be a boot time issue, and I don't know if I can use procmon to trace boot time events.
Assuming the machine is joined to an Active Directory domain the most likely explanation is that Group Policy is configuring the service startup to Disabled. The "Resultant Set of Policy" tool (
rsop.msc) can show you (in under "Computer Configuration", "Windows Settings", "Security Settings", and "System Services") if a GPO is altering the startup setting for that service.