Wireless utility networking after installing Windows XP SP3

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After installing WIndows XP Service Pack 3 (SP3), your Wireless network utility may stop working and you may get the following error message every time the system restarts:

The procedure entry point apsSearchInterface could not be located in the dynamic link library wlanapi.dll.

The procedure entry point apsInitialize could not be located in the dynamic link library wlanapi.dll

One of the Wireless vendor utility that is known to have an issue is D-Link.

Windows XP SP3 installs a new version of wlanapi.dll file into the c:\windows\system32\ folder.

Some of the Wireless Network Adapter device drivers or software (D-Link for example) installs a wlanapi.dll file in c:\windows\system32. And so, when XP SP3 is installed it overwrites that with newer version of the file causing the error.

The only option would be to download and install the latest driver/utility from the vendor to fix this issue. In the event, there isn’t an update from the vendor yet, try switching to Windows Wireless management.

To let Windows manage your Wireless network adapter,

1. Click Start -  Run and type “services.msc” and press enter.

2. Scroll down to locate “Wireless Zero Configuration”

3. Right-click and select “Start”

This will start the Windows Wireless Configuration utility and will let you take control of the Wireless adapter on your system.