Quick answer: Windows usually refuses to stop the DHCP Client service because another service depends on it (normally WinHTTP Web Proxy Auto-Discovery Service) and can’t be stopped, or because the command wasn’t run as administrator. You rarely need to stop it at all. To get a new IP address, run ipconfig /release and ipconfig /renew instead, and to use a static IP, set it on the network adapter. The DHCP Client service can keep running in both cases.
In this guide
What the DHCP Client service does
DHCP Client (service name Dhcp) gets an IP address for your PC from the router or DHCP server and keeps the PC’s DNS records up to date. Microsoft’s service description reads: “Registers and updates IP addresses and DNS records for this computer. If you stop this service, this computer doesn’t receive dynamic IP addresses and DNS updates.” Its default startup type is Automatic.
Stopping it on a PC that gets its address automatically means the address isn’t renewed when the lease runs out, so the connection can drop later rather than straight away. That delay is why stopping it can look harmless at first.
Why Windows won’t stop it
The failure usually shows up in one of three ways: Stop is greyed out in services.msc, Services shows an error ending in Error 5: Access is denied, or net stop dhcp reports System error 5 has occurred. The usual causes are:
| Cause | How to tell |
|---|---|
| Not running as administrator | Command Prompt’s title bar doesn’t say Administrator. Close it and open it with Run as administrator. |
| A dependent service won’t stop | Windows has to stop every service that depends on DHCP Client first. In Microsoft Q&A reports, the one that blocks it is WinHTTP Web Proxy Auto-Discovery Service, whose controls are all greyed out and which returns Access is denied. |
| The service doesn’t accept stop requests right now | It’s busy starting, renewing a lease or shutting down. Wait a minute and check its status again. |
To see which services depend on DHCP Client, open PowerShell and run:
Get-Service -Name Dhcp | Format-List -Property Name, Status, DependentServicesYou can see the same thing in services.msc: double-click DHCP Client and open the Dependencies tab.
What to do instead of stopping it
Most people stop DHCP Client to refresh a network connection. The ipconfig commands do that directly, with no service changes. Open Command Prompt as administrator and run:
ipconfig /release
ipconfig /renew/releasesends the DHCP server a release message and drops the current address./renewasks for a fresh lease. It only works on adapters set to get an address automatically.ipconfig /registerdnsre-registers the PC’s name in DNS without a restart, which covers the other half of the service’s job.ipconfig /flushdnsclears the local DNS cache if names are resolving to old addresses.
If /renew fails or you get an address starting with 169.254, the PC isn’t reaching a DHCP server at all. Our guide to Ethernet doesn’t have a valid IP configuration walks through that.
Setting a static IP doesn’t need the service stopped
If you want a fixed address, set it on the adapter and leave DHCP Client alone. In Windows 11 open Settings > Network & internet, select Ethernet or Wi-Fi (then your network), and next to IP assignment select Edit and choose Manual. From an administrator prompt the same thing looks like this, with your own adapter name and addresses:
netsh interface ipv4 set address name="Ethernet" source=static address=192.168.1.50 mask=255.255.255.0 gateway=192.168.1.1To go back to an automatic address later, run netsh interface ipv4 set address name="Ethernet" source=dhcp. Run netsh interface show interface if you’re not sure of the adapter’s name.
If you really need to restart it
If a script or a test genuinely needs the service restarted, use an administrator PowerShell window:
Restart-Service -Name Dhcp -ForceMicrosoft’s Stop-Service documentation says -Force stops a service even if other services depend on it, and that these cmdlets only work when you have permission to control the service. If it still fails with Access is denied, a dependent service is most likely refusing to stop, and restarting the PC is the safe way to restart DHCP Client. Expect the network to drop for a few seconds while it restarts.
Fixes to avoid
Some forum answers suggest taking ownership of the Dhcp or Tcpip registry keys, giving accounts full control over them, adding service accounts to the Administrators group, or killing the svchost.exe process the service runs in. Each of these can break networking or weaken security, and none is Microsoft guidance. A shared svchost.exe process can host several services, so ending it can stop more than you meant to. If you do change service registry keys, export a backup first in Registry Editor with File > Export.
Disabling DHCP Client isn’t a fix either. Microsoft notes that services which depend on it then can’t start, and the PC won’t get an address automatically.
If you already disabled it
Set it back to its default and start it from an administrator Command Prompt. The space after start= is required:
sc config dhcp start= auto
net start dhcpThen run ipconfig /renew. If shared folders or other PCs stop showing up after network changes, see network computers not showing. For other Windows services, our guide to the WebClient service shows how to check a service’s startup type safely.
Related guides
- Ethernet doesn’t have a valid IP configuration: 7 fixes
- Network computers not showing in File Explorer: how to fix it
- WebClient service in Windows 11 and 10: what it does and how to start or disable it
- Component Services (dcomcnfg) in Windows: what it is and how to open it
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