Fix 0X0000085A Workstation service not started

I know that sinking feeling when you try to connect to a network drive or open a shared folder and Windows throws back error 0X0000085A. It's cryptic and stops you cold. But I've fixed this hundreds of times. The root cause is almost always the Workstation service (the one that handles SMB connections) being stopped or disabled. Let's get it running.

The quick fix: restart the Workstation service

Press Windows + R, type services.msc, and press Enter.
Scroll down the list until you see Workstation. It's usually near the top of the S section.
Look at the Status column. If it's blank (not "Running"), right-click Workstation and choose Start.
After it starts, right-click again, choose Properties, and make sure the Startup type is set to Automatic. If it's not, change it to Automatic and click Apply.
Click OK to close the properties window.
Now try your network connection again. It should work immediately.

What you should see: After step 3, the Status column changes to "Running." After step 4, the startup type dropdown shows "Automatic" with a check mark next to it.

If the service starts but then stops again after a few seconds, you've got a different problem. Skip to the variations section below.

Why this works

The Workstation service is the Windows component that lets your PC act as a client on an SMB network. When you connect to a shared folder, a network drive, or a printer on another computer, this service is the one doing the talking. If it's not running, your PC can't send or receive any SMB traffic — so every network resource looks dead.

This service is designed to start automatically when Windows boots. But I've seen it get stopped by:

A failed network driver update that knocks out dependent services.
Group Policy changes from an IT department that disable it (accidentally or on purpose).
Third-party antivirus or firewall software that blocks SMB ports and then stops the service "to save resources." Norton and McAfee have done this to me personally.
A corrupted service state caused by a bad Windows Update. This is less common but happens — especially after feature updates.

Setting the startup to Automatic ensures it comes back after a reboot. Don't rely on Manual or Automatic (Delayed Start) — some network tools expect the service to be ready before the desktop even loads.

Less common variations

Service starts but stops immediately

This usually means a dependent service is missing or broken. The Workstation service depends on two other services: NetBIOS over TCP/IP (which is part of the TCP/IP NetBIOS Helper service) and Server (if your PC also shares files, but that's not required for client operations). Check them both:

In Services, find TCP/IP NetBIOS Helper. Its status should be Running, startup type Automatic.
If it's stopped, start it. If it won't start, you might have a Winsock corruption. Open Command Prompt as admin and run netsh winsock reset, then reboot.
Also check Server service — set it to Automatic (but you don't need to start it unless you're sharing files).

Workstation service missing entirely

If you don't see the Workstation service in the list, the SMB 1.0/CIFS File Sharing Support feature might be uninstalled. This is rare on Windows 10/11 but happens on stripped-down builds. To add it back:

Open Control Panel > Programs and Features > Turn Windows features on or off.
Scroll down to SMB 1.0/CIFS File Sharing Support.
Check the box. You only need the SMB Client sub-component, not the server. But checking the whole thing is fine.
Click OK, let Windows install it, and reboot.

After reboot, the Workstation service will appear and start automatically.

Error persists even when service is running

I've seen cases where the service runs fine but the error still shows. This points to a corrupted service registry key. Open regedit as admin, go to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\LanmanWorkstation. Check that the Start DWORD is set to 2 (Automatic) and the ImagePath is %SystemRoot%\System32\svchost.exe -k NetworkService. Don't change anything unless you're sure — a wrong value here can break networking completely.

Prevention

To stop this from coming back, take these two steps:

After you fix the service, run this command in an admin Command Prompt:
```
sc config LanmanWorkstation start= auto
```
This explicitly locks the startup type to Automatic through the service control manager, bypassing any Group Policy overrides.
If your antivirus has a "network protection" or "firewall" module that offers to "optimize" network services, decline that feature. It's what disables the Workstation service on many consumer AV suites. I've seen Bitdefender and Avast do it.

That's it. You should be back on the network now. If you're still stuck, check your network profile (make sure it's set to Private, not Public) and verify your DNS isn't blocking SMB traffic — but nine times out of ten, it's just that service sitting idle.