FIX: The Parallel port driver service failed to start

After you have disabled the Parallel Port in your BIOS, the following error may occur every time you start Windows.

Event Type: Error
Event Source: Service Control Manager
Event Category: None
Event ID: 7000
Date:  8/13/2009
Time:  9:15:47 AM
User:  N/A
Computer: computername
Description:
The Parallel port driver service failed to start due to the following error:
The service cannot be started, either because it is disabled or because it has no enabled devices associated with it.

The service for the Parallel Port is set to start automatically at boot. To disable the service (and therefor solve the problem which causes the error message), follow the steps below:

1. Click Start, Run, type ‘regedit‘ and press Enter, to open your registry editor
2. Navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\Parport
3. Double-click on the REG_DWORD “Start”
4. In the window that popups, replace 3 in 4 and click OK. The value 4 indicates that the service Parport is disabled and should not try to start.
5. All done! The message won’t appear the next time you start Windows. (so actually there’s no step 5 😉 )