The Flash Media Server 4 Windows services don't start automatically if the program is installed with a nonadministrator account. Attempting to connect to the server (for example, when you open the Flash Media Server Welcome screen in a browser) causes an error. The message indicates that the client cannot connect to the server or that the connection has timed out.

Solution

If a client cannot connect to the server, use the Services control panel to verify that the Flash Media Server services are running. The Services control panel is located in Control Panel/System and Security/Administrative Tools/Services. In the Services control panel, the service names are Flash Media Server and Flash Media Administration Server. 

If the services are running, use the troubleshooting steps in the document Verify that the server streams media. 

If the services aren't running, you can start them from this panel. However, to ensure that they start automatically when the server restarts, set the Flash Media Server services to run as administrator by default.

Set the Flash Media Server services to Run As Administrator

Complete the following steps for each of the following files located in the Flash Media Server root installation folder (C:/Program Files/Adobe/Flash Media Server, by default):

• FMSAdmin.exe
• FMSCore.exe
• FMSMaster.exe
• FMSEdge.exe

 Flash Media Server starts when the computer starts.

Additional information

After installation completes, the Flash Media Server 4 installer calls the Windows NET command to start the services. Versions of the Windows operating system that implement the User Account Control (UAC) security component launch programs in a restricted mode. If the logged in user is a nonadministrator account (including a member of the local Administrators group), then programs run as a standard user. The UAC restrictions prevent the Flash Media Server installer from running the NET command with the necessary privileges. This issue affects installations on Windows Vista, Windows 7, and Windows Server 2008.

Note: Windows Vista and Windows 7 are not supported production platforms for Flash Media Server. However, they are recognized as development environments. 

If you'd rather uninstall Flash Media Server and reinstall, reinstall from an Administrator account. To do so, do one of the following:

Note: On Windows 2008, the default user is not an administrator.

Or:

For more information about installation, see Install Flash Media Server on Windows.