Component Services Hanging When Connecting to Other Computers

The Component Services application under Administrative Tools allows you manage the COM+ applications on different computers on your network. This is done by adding the computer to a list--a list which is then saved for the next time you open the application.

While this means you don't need to keep adding a computer, it also causes the application to hang if a computer in the list no longer exists.

If you have a computer in Component Services that no longer exists, you can make the application usable again by following these steps:

1. Open Component Services on the affected computer
2. Drop down into the Computers directory from the Component Services node
3. Make a note of the computer names in this list (apart from My Computer)
4. Close Component Services (you may need to kill the application from Task Manager)
   
5. Get the local IP address of another computer on your network that the affected computer can access
   
6. Open the hosts file in a text editor (the file can be found in \System32\drivers\etc\
7. Add entries for each computer name you noted, assigning the IP address from Step 5
8. Save the file
9. Reopen Component Service and drop down to the computers list
10. You may have to give it a few minutes, but now you should be able to select the other computers in the list and remove them
11. Edit the hosts file again to remove the entries you've added

Follow these steps and you should be able to get Component Services back in working order again.