Fix: Diagnostics Policy Service is not running

Users experience the error “Diagnostics policy service is not running” in the troubleshooting window when their internet is not working. This error is quite common and users are mostly prompted with another dialogue “Computer has limited network connectivity”.

The troubleshooter stops here and does little to resolve the network issue. The Diagnostic Policy Service enables problem detection, troubleshooting and resolution for Windows components on your Windows operating system. If this service is not running, diagnostics will no longer function. This behavior usually occurs because of some misconfigurations of the system. We will go through all the solutions and try getting the diagnostics service back online so the computer can continue with the troubleshooting.

Checking Diagnostics Policy Service

Before we start updating drivers or executing commands in the command prompt, we will check if the service is running or not. If it isn’t, we can easily enable it and try troubleshooting your network again.

1. Press Windows + R, type “services.msc” in the dialogue box and press Enter.
2. All the services on your computer will be listed here. Navigate through all of them until you find “Diagnostic Policy Service”. Right-click it and select Properties.

3. Set the startup type as “Automatic” and click the Start Press Apply to save changes and exit. Now try launching the troubleshooter again and see if the error message went away.

Solution 2: Granting administrator privileges to different modules

This error message might also occur if the modules ‘network service’ and ‘local service administrator’ don’t have administrative privileges. These modules require complete access to your computer so they can work with full autonomy and don’t hinder any blockades (problems with carrying out operations). We can try granting them these permissions and see if this fixes the problem for us.

1. Press Windows + S, type “cmd” in the dialogue box, right-click on the application and select “Run as administrator”.
2. Once in elevated command prompt, execute the following commands:

net localgroup Administrators /add networkservice

net localgroup Administrators /add localservice

3. Close the command prompt and try running the diagnostics again. If it doesn’t work, consider doing a restart.

Solution 3: Reinstalling the Network Adapters

If both the above solutions don’t work, reinstalling the network adapters might fix the problem instantly. We will uninstall the network adapter from your computer at first and then scan for hardware changes. The operating system will automatically detect the attached hardware and install the default drivers for it. If the default drivers don’t work, you can always update them.

1. Press Windows + R, type “devmgmt.msc” in the dialogue box and press Enter.
2. Expand the category “Network adapters”, right-click on the adapter which is giving you problems and click on “Uninstall device”.

3. Once the device is uninstalled, right-click on any empty space in the device manager and select “Scan for hardware changes”.

4. The network adapter will automatically be installed. Check if you are accessing the internet properly. If you still can’t, try troubleshooting again and see if the module works.

After installing the default drivers, you can also update them to the latest version by right-clicking the hardware and selecting “Update driver”. You can either update automatically (first option) or manually (second option).

Solution 4: System Restore/Clean Installation

If the above method doesn’t work, it is worth a shot restoring back before any latest Windows 10 updates were installed on your computer or when you installed any application on your computer. If you don’t have the last restore point, you can install a clean version of Windows. You can use the utility “Belarc” to get all your licenses saved, backup your data using external storage and then perform a clean install.

Note: This method is most viable in cases where the networking hardware fails to work after an update or after installing an application.

You can check the method on How to perform a system from our article in the second solution.