Windows service

Services snap-in

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

Command line

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

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

PowerShell

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

• Get-Service^[10]
• New-Service^[11]
• Restart-Service^[12]
• Resume-Service^[13]
• Set-Service^[14]
• Start-Service^[15]
• Stop-Service^[16]
• Suspend-Service^[17]

Other management tools

Windows also includes components that can do a subset of what the snap-in, Sc.exe and PowerShell do. Net.exe can start, stop, pause or resume a Windows service.^[18] 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.

Writing native 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.

Wrapping applications as a service

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.^[22]