When I install WAMP, the Apache and Mysql services are set to run as the LocalService user and all works well. However, because I need to access remote UNC paths in my PHP code, I need to run at least Apache as a user that exists on both the local host and the remote host - I'll call him WampUser.

When both Apache and Mysql are set to start as WampUser, I cannot start both at the same time. If both are stopped, I can start either successfully. When I attempt to start the other, I get

Error 1053: The service did not respond to the start or control request in a timely fashion.

This error appears immediately - there is no timeout.

When at least one of the services is set to start as LocalService, both start fine. I can, therefore, solve my problem by setting Apache to WampUser and Mysql to LocalService, but I'm more interested in why this is happening in the first place. I'm especially curious because this situation does not occur on other servers - something I've done to this server has made these two services exclusive when running as the same user.

Here are some miscellaneous data points:

• I am using Windows Server 2003.
• I've provided recursive Full Control to the C:\wamp directory for WampUser.
• Nothing appears in the event log after the service fails.
• No log entries appear in either the Mysql log or the Apache error log.
• Neither application appears in the process list when the appropriate service is stopped.

Any ideas?