See "My WinAppxD gets stuck regularly ...” for a workaround to this. It may be a very good idea to set up Multiple WinAppxD servers as a fallback position, in case you unexpectedly get a hung port condition.) If the restart fails, you can try stopping WinAppxD again (if one started during the restart process) and restarting it again. If a WinAppxD.exe does not reappear in the task list, or if it appears but client logins are not accepted, at this point, your only option is to reboot.

We don't have any figures as to what percentage of the time this is and is not successful. In general, if you stop a WORKING WinAppxD, and expect to be able to restart it without a reboot, YOU ARE TAKING A CHANCE. It may or may not work, due to NT. If you stop a malfunctioning WinAppxD in the hope that restarting it will resolve the error condition without a reboot, you have nothing to lose. In that case, it is definitely worth a try. (You must be logged in as Administrator to do this.)