Background Intelligent Transfer Service (BITS)

Description:

Transfers files in the background using idle network bandwidth, uses the HTTP protocol and supports resuming of broken downloads.
BITS can be ordered to a download file, but if the user logs off then it will suspend the file transfer, and resume again when the user logs back on again.
BITS starts when a file is added to its download queue, when the queue is empty the service stops again.

Related How to configure the bandwidth usage of BITS

Note if BITS is disabled and an application requests BITS then it will give this error:

Event ID - 10005
Description - DCOM got error “The service cannot be started, either because it is disabled or because it has no enabled devices associated with it. “ attempting to start the service BITS with arguments “” in order to run the server: { 4991D34B-80A1-4291-83B6-3328366B9097 }

Note if BITS fails to start or operate properly, then stop the service and reset the download queue by deleting the two files listed below. Can also find the files by doing a search for “qmgr” files MS KB920649, or if using Windows Vista then use the BITS Repair Tool:

%ALLUSERSPROFILE%\Application Data\Microsoft\Network\Downloader\qmgr0.dat
%ALLUSERSPROFILE%\Application Data\Microsoft\Network\Downloader\qmgr1.dat

More Info MS KB326460 (Previous MS KB326607)
More Info BITSAdmin Tool Examples

  • Manual, if using Windows Update, Automatic Updates or want your programs like Windows, MSN Explorer etc. updated in the background.
  • Disabled, if you want manually to control when Windows and your programs are updated.
Default State:
  • Win8 - Automatic (Delayed Start)
  • Win7 - Manual
  • Vista - Automatic (Delayed Start)
  • WinXP/2K3: Manual
  • Win2k SP3+: Automatic
Process Name:
Supports:
  • None
Depends: