OmniServer is "Unable to connect to runtime program" after installing Windows XP Service Pack 3

I have an installation of OmniServer on Windows XP Service Pack 2 that is working correctly. When I update the operating system to use Service Pack 3, OmniServer no longer functions, returning an error: "Unable to connect to runtime program" and indicated the reason as "The dependency service or group failed to start".

How do I install Service Pack 3 such that OmniServer will still function normally?

This problem is caused by the dependency of the OmniServer service on the following services:

Network DDE
Network DDE DSDM

When Windows XP Service Pack 3 installs, it disables the above two services. As such, if you have OmniServer set to run as a service, you would receive the error, "Unable to connect to the runtime program", since the OmniServer services depends on those two services to be running.

So, when you install Service Pack 3, you will need to go to Control Panel -> Administrative Tools -> Services and enable both of the above services, setting them to a startup type of "Automatic". You can then restart the OmniServer service and you should not have any further problems.

If you prefer not to have NetDDE enabled on the machine, with OmniServer V2.6 or higher, you can go to View -> Runtime Options and check the box for the setting "Disable NetDDE dependence". This will prevent this problem from occurring when the two NetDDE services are disabled.