Windows service

The Services snap-in, built upon Microsoft Management Console, can connect to the local computer or a remote computer on the network, enabling users to:[1]

• view a list of installed services along with service name, descriptions and configuration
• start, stop, pause or restart services[5]
• specify service parameters when applicable
• change the startup type. Acceptable startup types include:
  • Automatic: The service starts at system logon.
  • Automatic (Delayed): The service starts a short while after the system has finished starting up. This option was introduced in Windows Vista in an attempt to reduce the boot-to-desktop time. However, not all services support delayed start.[6]
  • Manual: The service starts only when explicitly summoned.
  • Disabled: The service is disabled. It will not run.
• change the user account context in which the service operates
• configure recovery actions that should be taken if a service fails
• inspect service dependencies, discovering which services or device drivers depend on a given service or upon which services or device drivers a given service depends
• export the list of services as a text file or as a CSV file

The command-line tool to manage Windows services is sc.exe. It is available for all versions of Windows NT.[7] This utility is included with Windows XP[8] and later[9] and also in ReactOS.

The sc command's scope of management is restricted to the local computer. However, starting with Windows Server 2003, not only can sc do all that the Services snap-in does, but it can also install and uninstall services.[9]

The sc command duplicates some features of the net command.[10]

The ReactOS version was developed by Ged Murphy and is licensed under the GPL.[11]

The following example enumerates the status for active services & drivers.[12]

C:\>sc query

The following example displays the status for the Windows Event log service.[12]

C:\>sc query eventlog

The Microsoft.PowerShell.Management PowerShell module (included with Windows) has several cmdlets which can be used to manage Windows services:

• Get-Service[13]
• New-Service[14]
• Restart-Service[15]
• Resume-Service[16]
• Set-Service[17]
• Start-Service[18]
• Stop-Service[19]
• Suspend-Service[20]

Windows also includes components that can do a subset of what the snap-in, Sc.exe and PowerShell do. The net command can start, stop, pause or resume a Windows service.[21] In Windows Vista and later, Windows Task Manager can show a list of installed services and start or stop them. MSConfig can enable or disable (see startup type description above) Windows services.

A Windows service is created using development tools such as Microsoft Visual Studio or Embarcadero Delphi. In order to be a Windows service, a program needs to be written in such a way that it can handle start, stop, and pause messages from the Service Control Manager. Service Control Manager is a component of Windows which is responsible for starting and stopping services.

The Windows Resource Kit for Windows NT 3.51, Windows NT 4.0 and Windows 2000 provides tools to control the use and registration of services: SrvAny.exe acts as a service wrapper to handle the interface expected of a service (e.g. handle service_start and respond sometime later with service_started or service_failed) and allow any executable or script to be configured as a service. Sc.exe allows new services to be installed, started, stopped and uninstalled.[25]