Fix - Enlist Operation Failed: SQL Server Could Not Register With Microsoft Distributed Transaction Coordinator (MSDTC)

Distributed transactions were happily running between our SQL servers and then we installed Windows 2003 Server SP2 and all of a sudden we got this nice error message when attempting a remote data update via linked servers. I couldn't even run "BEGIN DISTRIBUTED TRANSACTION" without getting the error message. The full error message is:

"Enlist operation failed: 0x8004d00e(XACT_E_NOTRANSACTION). SQL Server could not register with Microsoft Distributed Transaction Coordinator (MSDTC) as a resource manager for this transaction. The transaction may have been stopped by the client or the resource manager."

Apparently, SP2 disables network DTC access (how nice, I feel more secure knowing that my data can't be updated remotely anymore).

Solution:

From Control Panel | Add or Remove Programs | Add Remove Windows Components
Select "Application Server" and click the "Details" button
Check "Enable network DTC access" and click OK for however many prompts it takes to apply the changes.

****NOTE**** this change WILL SHUT DOWN SQL SERVER so plan accordingly (this would have been handy to know in advance since I ran it in the middle of the workday and everyone got disconnected).

Hope this helps!