Native Access 2 installation failed — NTKDaemon service won’t start (Windows 11 Pro)

Hi everyone,

I’ve spent over two hours trying to install Native Access 2 on my Windows 11 Pro system, but the installation always fails when the installer tries to start the NTKDaemon service.

Here’s the exact message I get during setup:

“The NTKDaemon service could not be started. Verify that you have sufficient privileges to start system services.”

Even though I’m running everything under a local Administrator account, the service never starts — and Native Access remains unusable because NTKDaemon must be running for it to launch.

🧠 System Context

Computer: JOLICIEL-4 (dedicated music workstation)
OS: Windows 11 Pro (fully updated)
Account: Local Administrator
Installation path: C:\Program Files\Native Instruments\
Other installers completed successfully the same day:
- Waves Central 14.0
- Plugin Alliance 1.4
- Vienna Assistant 1.2.534

⚙️ What I’ve Already Tried

Run the installer as Administrator → same failure.
Verified that Bonjour Service is running correctly (used by other DAWs).
Modified local group policies (gpedit.msc):
- Added the Administrator account to “Log on as a service.”
- Enabled “Allow service to interact with desktop.”
Checked the file structure:
- No C:\Program Files\Native Instruments\NTKDaemon folder is ever created.
- No NTKDaemon.exe is found after install.
Reset the Winsock catalog and rebooted.
Tried to start the NTKDaemon service manually in services.msc → immediate failure.
Checked Event Viewer → Application Log:
- Source: Service Control Manager
- Error: Service NTKDaemon failed to start — path not found or insufficient privileges.

❌ Current Result

Installation stops mid-process.
Native Access cannot launch because NTKDaemon remains stopped.
Re-running the installer or repairing doesn’t help.

💬 Question

Has anyone found a workaround for this?
It seems the installer can’t create or register the NTKDaemon service at all — perhaps due to new security restrictions in Windows 11 Pro?

I’d really appreciate any insights or verified steps to manually register or start NTKDaemon.
If there’s an offline installer for Native Access or a version that doesn’t depend on this service, that might help too.

Thanks in advance for your time and help 🙏
Robert

Find more posts tagged with

Native Access

ntkdaemon

Comments

PoorFellow

https://community.native-instruments.com/discussion/48255/native-access-2-installation-failed-ntkdaemon-service-won-t-start-windows-11-pro

perhaps due to new security restrictions in Windows 11 Pro?

Native Access 2 (3.x.x) usually/generally works fine on Windows 11, also on updated Windows 11 (I use Windows 11 myself).

What I’ve Already Tried

The number and type of things that you have "Already Tried" for me personally makes it extremely hard to even try to guess what state that your system is in now. But also makes me think that the reason that you have the problem in the first place could be that you have been equally 'creative' at another occasion.

Question

Has anyone found a workaround for this?
It seems the installer can’t create or register the NTKDaemon service at all — perhaps due to new security restrictions in Windows 11 Pro?

You give information about unrelated software and yet give zero information about any of the relevant software (e.g. what is the version of N.A. and NTKDaemon ?) (and what is your Windows 11 version ?)

What you normally might have done as an attempted fix would be to uninstall the NTKDaemon and then tried to manually install the NTKDaemon by itself running the NTKDaemon installer as an Admin. Again we don't even know what N.A. version installer you have been using or what version NTKDaemon.

Also then because of your extremely 'creative' approach to handling any software problems then I can't stop wondering if you are going to end up having to reinstall your Windows…

Joliciel

Hello,

Thank you very much for your detailed message and for taking the time to write — I really appreciate it!
Here are the details you asked for:
Windows 11 Pro version: 23H2 (October 2025 cumulative update)
Native Access 2 version: 3.14.0
NTKDaemon version: 1.12.0 (installed automatically by Native Access)
The NTKDaemon service fails to start during installation, even when the installer is run as Administrator. The exact message is:
“The NTKDaemon service could not be started. Verify that you have sufficient privileges to start system services.”
The service appears in the Windows Services list but remains in the Stopped state. Attempting to start it manually produces the same error.
I have already checked:
Folder permissions for C:\Program Files\Native Instruments\NTKDaemon
Local Security Policy → “Log on as a service” rights
Running the installer both as Admin and from the built-in Administrator account
Windows Firewall and the signature of NTKDaemon.exe
If you have any further ideas or a specific method to re-register or redeploy this service, I’d be happy to try it.
Thanks again for your help!
Robert

PoorFellow

https://community.native-instruments.com/discussion/comment/244518#Comment_244518

Does this PC have more user accounts ? Or have some of the files /file system been reused from an earlier Windows installation/migration ?

Do you have any advanced network setup / network drive setup / cloud drive(s) running ?

What is your AV ?

Does this folder exist on your system ? : C:\Users\Public\Documents\Native Instruments

Checked the file structure:
No C:\Program Files\Native Instruments\NTKDaemon folder is ever created.
No NTKDaemon.exe is found after install.

I have already checked:
Folder permissions for C:\Program Files\Native Instruments\NTKDaemon

How do you check folder permissions for : C:\Program Files\Native Instruments\NTKDaemon ? You say yourself that no such folder is even created.

FYI the folder NTKDaemon is not supposed to exist at C:\Program Files\Native Instruments\

The NTKDaemon folder is at C:\Program Files\Common Files\Native Instruments\NTK

Native Access 2 version: 3.14.0

NTKDaemon version: 1.12.0 (installed automatically by Native Access)

No it is not ! Version 3.14.0 of Native Access installs version 1.21.0 of NTKDaemon (it will not work if using wrong NTKDaemon version)

Try uninstalling the NTKDaemon

Then run the NI reg tool and remove NTKDaemon if still there.

Then reboot computer

Then copy the installer from C:\Program Files\Native Instruments\Native Access\resources\daemon\win onto your desktop , Install should be NTKDaemon 1.21.0 Setup PC for Native Access 3.14.0

Then run the installer as an Admin from your desktop

Then reboot

Then check if the NTKDaemon is running

You are not using latest version of Native Access for your OS , version 3.14 ought to have worked but for full functionality after an installation then you need to be using latest version of Native Access for your OS.

So after having done the above then if that doesn't work then you should uninstall both the Native Access and the NTK Daemon and then reinstall using latest version of Native Access for your OS.

Quick links

Unanswered questions