Windows 11 agent service will not start

[chrisalibby]

I cannot get the Pulse agent service to start on a Windows 11 desktop. I've only seen one other post that discusses this but it did not solve my issue. I'm including the installation output and checks below:

PS C:\Users\me> $env:PULSE_URL="http://X.X.X.X:7655"; $env:PULSE_TOKEN="e3201b95f59d08f028993eb238764926c1a86bcb9e62548520bc32089ff2cdc0"; irm http://X.X.X.X:7655/install.ps1 | iex
Validating parameters...
Downloading agent from http://X.X.X.X:7655/download/pulse-agent?arch=windows-amd64...
Verifying downloaded binary...
Checksum verified: 03bef2ef6487dcb7cb19e5767de4bcb06e360bbb0d5009f0b918852d5f53700f
Checking for legacy agents...
Installing binary...
Configuring Windows Service...
Start-Service:
Line |
 301 |  Start-Service $AgentName
     |  ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
     | Service 'Pulse Unified Agent (PulseAgent)' cannot be started due to the following error: Cannot start service 'PulseAgent' on computer '.'.
PS C:\Users\chris> Format-Hex -Path "C:\Program Files\Pulse\pulse-agent.exe" | Select-Object -First 1

   Label: C:\Program Files\Pulse\pulse-agent.exe

          Offset Bytes                                           Ascii
                 00 01 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09 0A 0B 0C 0D 0E 0F
          ------ ----------------------------------------------- -----
0000000000000000 4D 5A 90 00 03 00 00 00 04 00 00 00 FF FF 00 00 MZ� �   �   ÿÿ

PS C:\Users\chris> sc.exe qc PulseAgent
[SC] QueryServiceConfig SUCCESS

SERVICE_NAME: PulseAgent
        TYPE               : 10  WIN32_OWN_PROCESS
        START_TYPE         : 2   AUTO_START
        ERROR_CONTROL      : 1   NORMAL
        BINARY_PATH_NAME   : "C:\Program Files\Pulse\pulse-agent.exe" --url "http://X.X.X.X:7655" --token "TOKEN" --interval "30s" --enable-host
        LOAD_ORDER_GROUP   :
        TAG                : 0
        DISPLAY_NAME       : Pulse Unified Agent
        DEPENDENCIES       :
        SERVICE_START_NAME : LocalSystem

The service runs just fine and reports back to the server with no issues when I run it from the command prompt.

PS C:\Users\chris> CMD /C "C:\Program Files\Pulse\pulse-agent.exe" --url "http://X.X.X.X:7655" --token "TOKEN" --interval "30s" --enable-host
{"level":"info","version":"v4.33.1","pulse_url":"http://X.X.X.X:7655","host_agent":true,"docker_agent":false,"auto_update":true,"time":"2025-12-09T11:36:20-05:00","message":"Starting Pulse Unified Agent"}
{"level":"info","time":"2025-12-09T11:36:20-05:00","message":"Host agent module started"}
{"level":"info","currentVersion":"v4.33.1","availableVersion":"4.36.2","time":"2025-12-09T11:36:50-05:00","message":"New agent version available, performing self-update"}
{"level":"error","error":"failed to restart: not supported by windows","time":"2025-12-09T11:36:52-05:00","message":"Failed to self-update agent"}
{"level":"info","time":"2025-12-09T11:40:26-05:00","message":"Pulse Unified Agent stopped"}

Is there something I'm missing? It looks like it should start just fine. I've also created a schedule task to test running this as SYSTEM, which also works just fine.

[rcourtman]

The agent reads configuration from both environment variables and command-line flags. When running as a Windows service, the service manager passes command-line arguments via the BinaryPathName.

To debug why the service won't start:

1. Check how the service is registered:

sc.exe qc PulseAgent

Look at the BINARY_PATH_NAME - it should include --url, --token, etc.

2. Check Windows Event Viewer:

   • Application Log → look for "PulseAgent" source
   • System Log → look for "Service Control Manager" errors around the time you tried to start

3. Try starting the service manually with debug output:

sc.exe stop PulseAgent 2>$null
& "C:\path\to\pulse-agent.exe" --url "http://..." --token "..." --enable-host

If this works from command line but the service doesn't, the issue is likely the service configuration.

4. The most common issue is missing or malformed arguments. You can verify the registered path:

(Get-Service PulseAgent).BinaryPathName

If you ran the install script, which install method did you use? Running from PowerShell directly or piping from web (irm | iex)?

[chrisalibby]

@rcourtman I've done all this (included below). I tried a couple methods to install the script (cleaning up between tests) and the Install with parameters option seemed to be the one that appeared to work:

$env:PULSE_URL="http://X.X.X.X:7655"; $env:PULSE_TOKEN="APITOKEN"; irm http://X.X.X.X:7655/install.ps1 | iex

I've just removed everything, cleaned up the files, rebooted, then run the installer again using the string from above. The service fails to start.
I'm running the exact command from the BinaryPathName setting for the service. When I run it myself it works, but it doesn't under SYSTEM as a service. Is there a flag to output a log file from the agent?

PowerShell 7.5.4
PS C:\> $env:PULSE_URL="http://X.X.X.X:7655"; $env:PULSE_TOKEN="APITOKEN"; irm http://X.X.X.X:7655/install.ps1 | iex
Validating parameters...
Downloading agent from http://X.X.X.X:7655/download/pulse-agent?arch=windows-amd64...
Verifying downloaded binary...
Checksum verified: 03bef2ef6487dcb7cb19e5767de4bcb06e360bbb0d5009f0b918852d5f53700f
Checking for legacy agents...
Installing binary...
Configuring Windows Service...
Start-Service:
Line |
 301 |  Start-Service $AgentName
     |  ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
     | Service 'Pulse Unified Agent (PulseAgent)' cannot be started due to the following error: Cannot start service 'PulseAgent' on computer '.'.
PS C:\> sc.exe qc PulseAgent
[SC] QueryServiceConfig SUCCESS

SERVICE_NAME: PulseAgent
        TYPE               : 10  WIN32_OWN_PROCESS
        START_TYPE         : 2   AUTO_START
        ERROR_CONTROL      : 1   NORMAL
        BINARY_PATH_NAME   : "C:\Program Files\Pulse\pulse-agent.exe" --url "http://X.X.X.X:7655" --token "APITOKEN" --interval "30s" --enable-host
        LOAD_ORDER_GROUP   :
        TAG                : 0
        DISPLAY_NAME       : Pulse Unified Agent
        DEPENDENCIES       :
        SERVICE_START_NAME : LocalSystem
PS C:\> & "C:\Program Files\Pulse\pulse-agent.exe" --url "http://X.X.X.X:7655" --token "APITOKEN" --interval "30s" --enable-host
{"level":"info","version":"v4.33.1","pulse_url":"http://X.X.X.X:7655","host_agent":true,"docker_agent":false,"auto_update":true,"time":"2025-12-11T08:04:14-05:00","message":"Starting Pulse Unified Agent"}
{"level":"info","time":"2025-12-11T08:04:14-05:00","message":"Host agent module started"}
{"level":"info","currentVersion":"v4.33.1","availableVersion":"4.36.2","time":"2025-12-11T08:04:44-05:00","message":"New agent version available, performing self-update"}
{"level":"error","error":"failed to restart: not supported by windows","time":"2025-12-11T08:04:46-05:00","message":"Failed to self-update agent"}
{"level":"error","error":"send report: send request: Post \"http://X.X.X.X:7655/api/agents/host/report\": context canceled","time":"2025-12-11T08:05:15-05:00","message":"Agent terminated with error"}
PS C:\>

I was able to grab the latest agent version from my server by typing $DownloadUrl to get the URL. The server is v4.36.2 but I'm getting the v4.33.1 agent. Is that correct?

[rcourtman]

Follow-up: v5 (release candidate 5.0.0-rc.1) has a unified pulse-agent that works across platforms including Windows. If you're still having issues with the current Windows agent service, trying the v5 RC might help.

# Download from releases
Invoke-WebRequest -Uri https://github.com/rcourtman/Pulse/releases/download/v5.0.0-rc.1/pulse-agent-windows-amd64.exe -OutFile pulse-agent.exe

[rcourtman]

The agent version mismatch (v4.33.1 vs v4.36.2) is not an issue - the agent you download is determined by what is bundled with your Pulse release. When you installed Pulse, it included v4.33.1 as the agent binary.

The agent has auto-update built in, which you can see in the logs: New agent version available, performing self-update. However, the Windows self-update is failing because restarting a Windows service from within itself requires special handling.

The actual issue is the service failing to start. Looking at your logs:

• The binary runs fine from command line
• The service configuration looks correct
• It fails when started as a service

Try this:

1. Check Windows Event Viewer → Application Log for any errors from "PulseAgent" source at the time of failure

2. Try running with explicit service flags:

sc.exe delete PulseAgent
sc.exe create PulseAgent binPath="\"C:\Program Files\Pulse\pulse-agent.exe\" service --url http://X.X.X.X:7655 --token YOUR_TOKEN --enable-host" start=auto
sc.exe start PulseAgent

3. Or just use the v5 RC which has improved Windows service handling - the download link I posted should work.