When you do an in place upgrade from server 2008R2 to windows 2012R2 of your vcenter server, then it comes with error event 7003   The VMware VirtualCenter Server service depends on the following service: ProtectedStorage. This service might not be installed.   the service depends on ProtectedStorage service wich is no longer in windows 2012R2 So to fix this you must edit the following registry key HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\vpxd Modify the value “DependOnService” and remove the line “ProtectedStorage” restart your server and the VMware VirtualCenter Server Service should start now. update 20-1-2016: error 1053 VMware Vsphere web client service Ran into [...]