Manage Services using PowerShell

Publish Date: September 17, 2015

Manage Services using PowerShell

As a Windows administrator, you might need to deal with Services on regular basis. You mainly need to list the services, to stop them, and sometimes need to change the Startup Mode. PowerShell offers you various cmdlets which can help you deal with Services. But before start managing the Services, you need to run the PowerShell console with administrator privileges since PowerShell does not violate the Windows security policies; it respects the security policies.

To start, let’s first take a look at the PowerShell cmdlets with the noun “Service” in their name.

PS D:\MyScripts> Get-Command -Noun Service

CommandType     Name                                               ModuleName
-----------     ----                                               ----------
Cmdlet          Get-Service                                        Microsoft.PowerShell.Management
Cmdlet          New-Service                                        Microsoft.PowerShell.Management
Cmdlet          Restart-Service                                    Microsoft.PowerShell.Management
Cmdlet          Resume-Service                                     Microsoft.PowerShell.Management
Cmdlet          Set-Service                                        Microsoft.PowerShell.Management
Cmdlet          Start-Service                                      Microsoft.PowerShell.Management
Cmdlet          Stop-Service                                       Microsoft.PowerShell.Management
Cmdlet          Suspend-Service                                    Microsoft.PowerShell.Management

You can use the cmdlets shown above to work with Windows Services.

List all the Services on Your Computer

To list all the services on a computer you can use Get-Service cmdlet (or gsv alias) without any parameter.

PS D:\MyScripts> Get-Service

Status   Name               DisplayName
------   ----               -----------
Running  AdobeARMservice    Adobe Acrobat Update Service
Stopped  AeLookupSvc        Application Experience
Stopped  ALG                Application Layer Gateway Service
Stopped  AmmyyAdmin         Ammyy Admin
Stopped  AmmyyAdmin_690     AmmyyAdmin_690
Stopped  AppIDSvc           Application Identity
Running  Appinfo            Application Information
Stopped  AppMgmt            Application Management
Stopped  AppReadiness       App Readiness
Stopped  AppXSvc            AppX Deployment Service (AppXSVC)
Running  AudioEndpointBu... Windows Audio Endpoint Builder
Running  Audiosrv           Windows Audio
Running  AVP15.0.2          Kaspersky Small Office Security Ser...
Stopped  AxInstSV           ActiveX Installer (AxInstSV)
Stopped  BDESVC             BitLocker Drive Encryption Service
Running  BFE                Base Filtering Engine

[output cut]

Notice the default behavior of cmdlet is that it lists all the Services in a tabular format having three columns containing Status, Name and DisplayName of each service because Format-Table is the default formatting cmdlet used by Get-Service. This is pretty much satisfactory for most of administrators. But if you want to format the output in List form, you can do this by piping the output of Get-Service cmdlet to Format-List cmdlet (fl alias). The following example lists the services in list format.

PS D:\MyScripts> gsv | fl

Name                : AdobeARMservice
DisplayName         : Adobe Acrobat Update Service
Status              : Running
DependentServices   : {}
ServicesDependedOn  : {}
CanPauseAndContinue : False
CanShutdown         : False
CanStop             : True
ServiceType         : Win32OwnProcess

Name                : AeLookupSvc
DisplayName         : Application Experience
Status              : Stopped
DependentServices   : {}
ServicesDependedOn  : {}
CanPauseAndContinue : False
CanShutdown         : False
CanStop             : False
ServiceType         : Win32ShareProcess

Name                : ALG
DisplayName         : Application Layer Gateway Service
Status              : Stopped
DependentServices   : {}
ServicesDependedOn  : {}
CanPauseAndContinue : False
CanShutdown         : False
CanStop             : False
ServiceType         : Win32OwnProcess

Name                : AmmyyAdmin
DisplayName         : Ammyy Admin
Status              : Stopped
DependentServices   : {}
ServicesDependedOn  : {}
CanPauseAndContinue : False
CanShutdown         : False
CanStop             : False
ServiceType         : Win32OwnProcess

[output cut]

Notice that the output is now displayed in list format. In this format some additional properties are also listed for each service. This is default behavior of Format-List cmdlet. If you want to see specific properties, use -Property parameter followed by the property name in the same order you want to list. The following example with display the all services with 3 properties (Name, DisplayName, Status) in List format.

PS D:\MyScripts> gsv | fl -Property Name, DisplayName, Status

Name        : AdobeARMservice
DisplayName : Adobe Acrobat Update Service
Status      : Running

Name        : AeLookupSvc
DisplayName : Application Experience
Status      : Stopped

Name        : ALG
DisplayName : Application Layer Gateway Service
Status      : Stopped

Name        : AmmyyAdmin
DisplayName : Ammyy Admin
Status      : Stopped

To display a specific service, use Get-Service cmdlet followed by the name of service. The following example displays the Windows Update service.

PS D:\MyScripts> Get-Service "Windows Update"

Status   Name               DisplayName
------   ----               -----------
Running  wuauserv           Windows Update

You can also use wildcard (*) to list multiple services starting or ending with same name. The following example lists all the services having microsoft keyword in their name.

PS D:\MyScripts> Get-Service -DisplayName *microsoft*

Status   Name               DisplayName
------   ----               -----------
Stopped  MSiSCSI            Microsoft iSCSI Initiator Service
Stopped  MsKeyboardFilter   Microsoft Keyboard Filter
Stopped  odserv             Microsoft Office Diagnostics Service
Stopped  smphost            Microsoft Storage Spaces SMP
Stopped  swprv              Microsoft Software Shadow Copy Prov...
Stopped  wlidsvc            Microsoft Account Sign-in Assistant

Manipulate the Output of Get-Service

Remember that PowerShell provides a Get-Member cmdlet which helps you to list all the properties associated with any cmdlet. Taking advantage of Get-Service | Get-Member, we can refine the output so that we add extra properties, for example, CanStop and ServiceType.

PS D:\MyScripts> Get-Service | Get-Member

   TypeName: System.ServiceProcess.ServiceController

Name                      MemberType    Definition
----                      ----------    ----------
Name                      AliasProperty Name = ServiceName
RequiredServices          AliasProperty RequiredServices = ServicesDependedOn
Disposed                  Event         System.EventHandler Disposed(System.Object, System.EventArgs)
Close                     Method        void Close()
Continue                  Method        void Continue()
CreateObjRef              Method        System.Runtime.Remoting.ObjRef CreateObjRef(type requestedType)
Dispose                   Method        void Dispose(), void IDisposable.Dispose()
Equals                    Method        bool Equals(System.Object obj)
ExecuteCommand            Method        void ExecuteCommand(int command)
GetHashCode               Method        int GetHashCode()
GetLifetimeService        Method        System.Object GetLifetimeService()
GetType                   Method        type GetType()
InitializeLifetimeService Method        System.Object InitializeLifetimeService()
Pause                     Method        void Pause()
Refresh                   Method        void Refresh()
Start                     Method        void Start(), void Start(string[] args)
Stop                      Method        void Stop()
WaitForStatus             Method        void WaitForStatus(System.ServiceProcess.ServiceControllerStatus desiredStatus), void Wa...
CanPauseAndContinue       Property      bool CanPauseAndContinue {get;}
CanShutdown               Property      bool CanShutdown {get;}
CanStop                   Property      bool CanStop {get;}
Container                 Property      System.ComponentModel.IContainer Container {get;}
DependentServices         Property      System.ServiceProcess.ServiceController[] DependentServices {get;}
DisplayName               Property      string DisplayName {get;set;}
MachineName               Property      string MachineName {get;set;}
ServiceHandle             Property      System.Runtime.InteropServices.SafeHandle ServiceHandle {get;}
ServiceName               Property      string ServiceName {get;set;}
ServicesDependedOn        Property      System.ServiceProcess.ServiceController[] ServicesDependedOn {get;}
ServiceType               Property      System.ServiceProcess.ServiceType ServiceType {get;}
Site                      Property      System.ComponentModel.ISite Site {get;set;}
Status                    Property      System.ServiceProcess.ServiceControllerStatus Status {get;}
ToString                  ScriptMethod  System.Object ToString();

The following example illustrates how we can ‘Sort’ the output based on ServiceType rather than the ‘Name’ property.

PS D:\MyScripts> Get-Service | Sort-Object -Property ServiceType | Format-Table Name, ServiceType, Status, CanStop -AutoSize

Name                                                                             ServiceType  Status CanStop
----                                                                             -----------  ------ -------
Intel(R) ME Service                                                          Win32OwnProcess Running    True
Intel(R) PROSet Monitoring Service                                           Win32OwnProcess Running    True
Intel(R) Capability Licensing Service TCP IP Interface                       Win32OwnProcess Stopped   False
RpcLocator                                                                   Win32OwnProcess Stopped   False
Intel(R) Capability Licensing Service Interface                              Win32OwnProcess Running    True
LMS                                                                          Win32OwnProcess Running    True
MozillaMaintenance                                                           Win32OwnProcess Stopped   False
TrustedInstaller                                                             Win32OwnProcess Stopped   False
jhi_service                                                                  Win32OwnProcess Running    True
vds                                                                          Win32OwnProcess Stopped   False
VSS                                                                          Win32OwnProcess Stopped   False
FontCache3.0.0.0                                                             Win32OwnProcess Running    True
wampapache64                                                                 Win32OwnProcess Stopped   False
Fax                                                                          Win32OwnProcess Stopped   False
wampmysqld64                                                                 Win32OwnProcess Stopped   False

[output cut]

The -AutoSize parameter produces more sensible column widths.

Filtering the Output

If you are a System administrator, you might want to look at the services which are running and which have stopped. This can be done with the help of Where-Object cmdlet.

The following command will list the services which are stopped.

PS D:\MyScripts> Get-Service | Where-Object {$_.Status -eq "Stopped"}

Status   Name               DisplayName
------   ----               -----------
Stopped  AeLookupSvc        Application Experience
Stopped  ALG                Application Layer Gateway Service
Stopped  AmmyyAdmin         Ammyy Admin
Stopped  AmmyyAdmin_690     AmmyyAdmin_690
Stopped  AppIDSvc           Application Identity
Stopped  AppMgmt            Application Management
Stopped  AppReadiness       App Readiness
Stopped  AppXSvc            AppX Deployment Service (AppXSVC)
Stopped  AxInstSV           ActiveX Installer (AxInstSV)
Stopped  BDESVC             BitLocker Drive Encryption Service
Stopped  BthHFSrv           Bluetooth Handsfree Service
Stopped  bthserv            Bluetooth Support Service
Stopped  COMSysApp          COM+ System Application
Stopped  cphs               Intel(R) Content Protection HECI Se...
Stopped  CscService         Offline Files
Stopped  defragsvc          Optimize drives
Stopped  DeviceInstall      Device Install Service
Stopped  dot3svc            Wired AutoConfig
Stopped  DsmSvc             Device Setup Manager

[output cut]

Take careful note of the syntax. The Where-Object is enclosed within curly braces. In addition, the $_ notation is used to represent the object being transferred across the pipeline. The .Status is calling the property of current service in pipeline. You can call any property which you have found using Get-Service | Get-Member command. Notice the comparison operator used is equal to (-eq). Windows PowerShell does not use the standard arithmetic comparison operators; instead, it uses operators such as:

  • -lt — Less than
  • -le — Less than or equal to
  • -gt — Greater than
  • -ge — Greater than or equal to
  • -eq — Equal to
  • -ne — Not equal to
  • -like — Like; uses wildcards for pattern matching
  • -match — Matches a string using regular expressions.
  • -contains — Tells whether a collection of reference values includes a single test value. Always returns a Boolean value TRUE or FALSE.
  • -replace — Changes the specified elements of a value.

If you want to look for the services which are Running, just replace the ‘Stopped’ keyword with Running in above command. The command is shown below:

PS D:\MyScripts> Get-Service | Where-Object {$_.Status -eq "Running"}

Status   Name               DisplayName
------   ----               -----------
Running  AdobeARMservice    Adobe Acrobat Update Service
Running  Appinfo            Application Information
Running  AudioEndpointBu... Windows Audio Endpoint Builder
Running  Audiosrv           Windows Audio
Running  AVP15.0.2          Kaspersky Small Office Security Ser...
Running  BFE                Base Filtering Engine
Running  BITS               Background Intelligent Transfer Ser...
Running  BrokerInfrastru... Background Tasks Infrastructure Ser...
Running  Browser            Computer Browser

[output cut]

You can also filter the output with Select-Object cmdlet using -Property parameter of command as shown below:

PS D:\MyScripts> Get-Service | Select-Object -Property DisplayName, Status

DisplayName                                                                                                                  Status
-----------                                                                                                                  ------
Adobe Acrobat Update Service                                                                                                Running
Application Experience                                                                                                      Running
Application Layer Gateway Service                                                                                           Stopped
Ammyy Admin                                                                                                                 Stopped

[output cut]

The above commands will only display DisplayName and Status properties of windows services.

Use  Get-Service on Remote Computer

You can use Get-Service cmdlet with –ComputerName parameter to retrieve and manipulate the services of remote computer as you did with local computer. You must have enough privileges on remote computer in order to run the command. Also note that Get-Service command does not use PowerShell remoting (WSMan) to retrieve data from remote computer; instead it uses dot net framework methods. So, you can run Get-Service cmdlet against any remote computer which does not have PowerShell remoting configured.

PS D:\MyScripts> Get-Service -ComputerName DC1

Status   Name               DisplayName
------   ----               -----------
Running  ADWS               Active Directory Web Services
Stopped  AeLookupSvc        Application Experience
Stopped  ALG                Application Layer Gateway Service
Running  AppHostSvc         Application Host Helper Service
Stopped  AppIDSvc           Application Identity
Running  Appinfo            Application Information
Stopped  AppMgmt            Application Management
Stopped  aspnet_state       ASP.NET State Service
Stopped  AudioEndpointBu... Windows Audio Endpoint Builder
Stopped  AudioSrv           Windows Audio
Running  AVP15.0.2          Kaspersky Small Office Security Ser...
Running  BFE                Base Filtering Engine
Running  BITS               Background Intelligent Transfer Ser...

[output cut]

Using Out-File cmdlet

You can use Out-File cmdlet to redirect and save the output of Get-Service and even the output of every cmdlet to a text file. This method can be helpful for logging.

PS D:\MyScripts> Get-Service | Where-Object {$_.Status -eq "Stopped"} | out-file "D:\Stopped_services.txt"

This time you will not see any output on console, instead the output is sent to file D:\Stopped_services.txt file. If you look at the contents of file, the output would be similar to that of console output.

PS D:\MyScripts> Get-Content D:\Stopped_services.txt

Status   Name               DisplayName
------   ----               -----------
Stopped  AeLookupSvc        Application Experience
Stopped  ALG                Application Layer Gateway Service
Stopped  AmmyyAdmin         Ammyy Admin
Stopped  AmmyyAdmin_690     AmmyyAdmin_690
Stopped  AppIDSvc           Application Identity
Stopped  AppMgmt            Application Management
Stopped  AppReadiness       App Readiness
Stopped  AppXSvc            AppX Deployment Service (AppXSVC)
Stopped  AxInstSV           ActiveX Installer (AxInstSV)
Stopped  BDESVC             BitLocker Drive Encryption Service
Stopped  BthHFSrv           Bluetooth Handsfree Service
Stopped  bthserv            Bluetooth Support Service
Stopped  COMSysApp          COM+ System Application
Stopped  cphs               Intel(R) Content Protection HECI Se...
Stopped  CscService         Offline Files
Stopped  defragsvc          Optimize drives
Stopped  DeviceInstall      Device Install Service

[output cut]

Start a Windows Service

You can start any service with the help of Start-Service cmdlet. An example of starting a ‘Stopped’ windows update service is given below:

PS D:\MyScripts> gsv wuauserv

Status   Name               DisplayName
------   ----               -----------
Stopped  wuauserv           Windows Update

PS D:\MyScripts> Get-Service wuauserv | Start-Service -Verbose
VERBOSE: Performing the operation "Start-Service" on target "Windows Update (wuauserv)".

In first command, I checked the status of Windows Update service. I saw it is stopped. So, I piped the output of Get-Service wuauserv command to Start-Service cmdlet and the service started. The -verbose switch displayed the information about the operation being performed.

PS D:\MyScripts> Get-Service wuauserv

Status   Name               DisplayName
------   ----               -----------
Running  wuauserv           Windows Update

You can also use the Start-Service cmdlet directly if you know the name of service you want to start. This is shown below:

PS D:\MyScripts> Start-Service AmmyyAdmin -Verbose
VERBOSE: Performing the operation "Start-Service" on target "Ammyy Admin (AmmyyAdmin)".

Stop a Windows Service

To stop any running service, use Stop-Service cmdlet as shown below:

PS D:\MyScripts> Stop-Service AmmyyAdmin ; Get-Service AmmyyAdmin

Status   Name               DisplayName
------   ----               -----------
Stopped  AmmyyAdmin         Ammyy Admin

This time I did not use -verbose switch, that’s why I did not see any information but the service is actually stopped. Notice that I’ve used semi-colon (;) to run two commands at one time. You can always run multiple PowerShell commands at once by using semi-colon (;) between each command.

Change the Service StartMode

Sometime you might want to see and even change the StartMode of any service. The StartMode is a condition which determines the behavior of service. The StartupMode can accept the following values:

  • Automatic: The Service is started automatically as part of the Windows boot process.
  • Manual: The Service can be started by any application, process or user whenever needed, but is off by default. Once it is started, the service will remain started until it is manually stopped or the system is rebooted.
  • Disabled: The service is disabled. It will not run.

Unfortunately, Windows PowerShell does not have any built-in cmdlet which can display the StartMode for any service. The Get-Service cmdlet does not display StartMode property even when used with Format-List -Property * parameter.

PS D:\MyScripts> Get-Service wuauserv | Select-Object -Property *

Name                : wuauserv
RequiredServices    : {rpcss}
CanPauseAndContinue : False
CanShutdown         : False
CanStop             : False
DisplayName         : Windows Update
DependentServices   : {}
MachineName         : .
ServiceName         : wuauserv
ServicesDependedOn  : {rpcss}
ServiceHandle       : SafeServiceHandle
Status              : Stopped
ServiceType         : Win32ShareProcess
Site                :
Container           :

Look at the output of above command; you can not see the StartMode property. So, how do you come to know if any service (Windows Update for instance) is set to start automatically at system startup or it is set as manual?

Luckily, Windows PowerShell has a Get-WmiObject cmdlet which allows you to query WMI (Windows Management Instrumentation) on system and retrieve the data from WMI store. You can see the StartMode property of any windows service using Get-WmiObject cmdlet as shown below:

PS D:\MyScripts> Get-WmiObject -Class Win32_Service

ExitCode  : 0
Name      : AdobeARMservice
ProcessId : 1532
StartMode : Auto
State     : Running
Status    : OK

ExitCode  : 0
Name      : AeLookupSvc
ProcessId : 0
StartMode : Manual
State     : Stopped
Status    : OK

ExitCode  : 1077
Name      : ALG
ProcessId : 0
StartMode : Manual
State     : Stopped
Status    : OK

[output cut]

Notice that Get-WmiObject cmdlet by default uses Format-List to format the output and it displays all the information like that of Get-Service cmdlet including StartMode property. To display the output in the same format as Get-Service; use the following command:

PS D:\MyScripts> Get-WmiObject -Class Win32_Service | Format-Table -Property State, Name, DisplayName, StartMode

State                            Name                             DisplayName                      StartMode
-----                            ----                             -----------                      ---------
Running                          AdobeARMservice                  Adobe Acrobat Update Service     Auto
Stopped                          AeLookupSvc                      Application Experience           Manual
Stopped                          ALG                              Application Layer Gateway Ser... Manual
Stopped                          AmmyyAdmin_690                   

[output cut]         

The above command produces the output similar to Get-Service cmdlet including StartMode property for every service.

To view the StartMode property for a particular service (Windows Update for instance), use the Get-WmiObject cmdlet as shown below:

PS D:\MyScripts> Get-WmiObject -Class Win32_Service | Where-Object {$_.name -eq 'wuauserv'} | Format-Table -Property State, Name, Di
splayName, StartMode

State                            Name                             DisplayName                      StartMode
-----                            ----                             -----------                      ---------
Running                          wuauserv                         Windows Update                   Manual

You see the above command became very lengthy. You can always shorten the commands by using aliases instead of typing complete command. The above command can be shortened as follows:

PS D:\MyScripts> gwmi Win32_Service|?{$_.name -eq 'wuauserv'}|ft State,Name,DisplayName,StartMode

State                            Name                             DisplayName                      StartMode
-----                            ----                             -----------                      ---------
Stopped                          wuauserv                         Windows Update                   Manual

Now, we know that Windows update service has StartMode set to Manual. To change the StartMode, use Set-Service cmdlet with -StartupType parameter as shown below:

PS D:\MyScripts> Set-Service wuauserv -StartupType Automatic -Status Running
PS D:\MyScripts> gwmi Win32_Service|?{$_.name -eq 'wuauserv'}|ft State,Name,DisplayName,StartMode

State                            Name                             DisplayName                      StartMode
-----                            ----                             -----------                      ---------
Running                          wuauserv                         Windows Update                   Auto

The -StartupType parameter can accept only 3 values (Automatic, Manual, Disabled) and the -Status parameter can also accept only 3 values (Running, Paused, Stopped).

Stop a Windows Service

You can stop a running windows service using Stop-Service cmdlet. Remember that there are some critical windows services which do not support stopping. To get the list of windows services which can be stopped, use the Get-Service cmdlet as shown below:

PS D:\MyScripts> Get-Service | Where-Object {$_.Status -eq 'Running' -and $_.CanStop}

Status   Name               DisplayName
------   ----               -----------
Running  AdobeARMservice    Adobe Acrobat Update Service
Running  Appinfo            Application Information
Running  AudioEndpointBu... Windows Audio Endpoint Builder
Running  Audiosrv           Windows Audio
Running  AVP15.0.2          Kaspersky Small Office Security Ser...
Running  BFE                Base Filtering Engine
Running  BITS               Background Intelligent Transfer Ser...
Running  Browser            Computer Browser
Running  c2cautoupdatesvc   Skype Click to Call Updater
Running  c2cpnrsvc          Skype Click to Call PNR Service
Running  CertPropSvc        Certificate Propagation
Running  CryptSvc           Cryptographic Services

[output cut]

To list all services that cannot be stopped, slightly modify the above command:

PS D:\MyScripts> Get-Service | Where-Object {$_.status -eq 'running' -and !$_.CanStop}

Status   Name               DisplayName
------   ----               -----------
Running  BrokerInfrastru... Background Tasks Infrastructure Ser...
Running  DcomLaunch         DCOM Server Process Launcher
Running  LSM                Local Session Manager
Running  Power              Power
Running  RpcEptMapper       RPC Endpoint Mapper
Running  RpcSs              Remote Procedure Call (RPC)
Running  SamSs              Security Accounts Manager
Running  wudfsvc            Windows Driver Foundation - User-mo...

Notice that I used Not Operator (!) in front of CanStop property. The same command could be written as follows:

PS D:\MyScripts> Get-Service | Where-Object {$_.Status -eq 'Running' -and $_.CanStop -eq $false}

Status   Name               DisplayName
------   ----               -----------
Running  BrokerInfrastru... Background Tasks Infrastructure Ser...
Running  DcomLaunch         DCOM Server Process Launcher
Running  LSM                Local Session Manager
Running  Power              Power
Running  RpcEptMapper       RPC Endpoint Mapper
Running  RpcSs              Remote Procedure Call (RPC)
Running  SamSs              Security Accounts Manager
Running  wudfsvc            Windows Driver Foundation - User-mo...

For example, to stop Windows Update service, run the following command:

PS D:\MyScripts> Get-Service wuauserv | Stop-Service -Verbose
VERBOSE: Performing the operation "Stop-Service" on target "Windows Update (wuauserv)".
WARNING: Waiting for service 'Windows Update (wuauserv)' to stop...
WARNING: Waiting for service 'Windows Update (wuauserv)' to stop...

The -verbose switch is used to display the information about the operation being performed. You could also use Stop-Service wuauserv command. Both will work and perform same thing.

Restart a Windows Service

PowerShell gives you Restart-Service cmdlet which works pretty much same way as that of Stop-Service and Start-Service cmdlets. The following example shows how to restart Windows Update service.

PS D:\MyScripts> Restart-Service wuauserv -Verbose
VERBOSE: Performing the operation "Restart-Service" on target "Windows Update (wuauserv)".

Pause and Resume Windows Service

The Suspend-Service cmdlet sends a suspend (pause) message to the Windows Service Controller for each of the specified services. While suspended, the service is still running, but its action is halted until resumed, such as by using Resume-Service. You can specify the services by their service names or display names, or you can use the InputObject parameter to pass a service object representing the services that you want to suspend.

The following command list all of the services on the computer that can be suspended.

PS D:\MyScripts> Get-Service | Where-Object {$_.CanPauseAndContinue }

Status   Name               DisplayName
------   ----               -----------
Running  LanmanWorkstation  Workstation
Running  Netlogon           Netlogon
Running  stisvc             Windows Image Acquisition (WIA)
Running  Winmgmt            Windows Management Instrumentation

To Suspend (pause) the Workstation service on computer, use the following command.

PS D:\MyScripts> Suspend-Service -DisplayName Workstation

Now the status service changed to Paused.

PS D:\MyScripts> Get-Service Workstation

Status   Name               DisplayName
------   ----               -----------
Paused   LanmanWorkstation  Workstation

To Resume the service, use Resume-Service cmdlet as shown below:

PS D:\MyScripts> Resume-Service -DisplayName Workstation

Using Out-GridView cmdlet

PowerShell offers an Out-GridView cmdlet that sends the output to an interactive graphical table in a separate window. You can use Out-GridView along with Get-Service cmdlet to control services even more elegantly. See the following command as an example:

PS D:\MyScripts> Get-Service | Where-Object {$_.status -eq 'Stopped'} | Out-GridView -Title "Select service(s) to start" –PassThru | Start-Service –Verbose
Using Out-GridView cmdlet in PowerShell
Using Out-GridView cmdlet in PowerShell

We are essentially getting the services that are currently stopped, passing them to Out-GridView cmdlet in a nice graphical table, where we can select one or more services (by pressing and holding Ctrl button). After making the selection, when we click OK, the selected services will then be passed to Start-Process cmdlet with the help of -PassThru parameter. Ultimately, the selected services will be started. You can use the same idea to stop running services.

Create a new Windows Service

The New-Service cmdlet creates a new entry for a Windows service in the registry and in the service database. A new service requires an executable file that executes during the service.

The parameters of this cmdlet let you set the display name, description, startup type, and dependencies of the service.

For example, I have downloaded a portable TFTP Server from internet and I want to create a new TFTP service on my computer. Use the following PowerShell command to create new service.

PS D:\MyScripts> Get-Service | ? {$_.DisplayName -like "*tftp*"}

This command confirms if there is any existing service on computer with matching name.

The following command creates a new service with the name TFTPServer and sets the StartMode to Manual:

PS D:\MyScripts> New-Service -Name TFTPServer -BinaryPathName "C:\TFTP\tftpd32.exe" -DisplayName "TFTP Server" -Description "Open Source TFTP Server" -StartupType Manual

Status   Name               DisplayName
------   ----               -----------
Stopped  TFTPServer         TFTP Server

The newly created service is stopped. To start the service, use Start-Service cmdlet.

PS D:\MyScripts> Start-Service TFTPServer -Verbose

Delete or Remove a Windows Service

Have you ever encountered in a situation when you have uninstalled any software but the it’s rellevant service keeps appearing in Windows Services? The service no longer work and you want to remove this service.However, Windows PowerShell does not give any Remove-Service cmdlet to use, but still you can use Get-WmiObject cmdlet to remove the service. Wodering how?

This is how you do it. Remember that you can create any variable in PowerShell using dollar ($) symbol. You need to create a $svc variable and store the service name into it. Then you need to call delete method and the service will be gone.

I will show you step by step process:

1). Create a $svc variable and store the service with the name TFTServer into it.

PS D:\MyScripts> $svc = Get-WmiObject Win32_Service -Filter "Name='TFTPServer'"

2). To confirm, type the variable name ($svc) and press Enter.

PS D:\MyScripts> $svc

ExitCode  : 0
Name      : TFTPServer
ProcessId : 0
StartMode : Manual
State     : Stopped
Status    : OK

3). Now you know that the service you want to remove is stored into $svc variable, use Get-Member cmdlet with -MemberType Method parameter to see the available methods for this service. The following command tells you what methods this service can accept.

PS D:\MyScripts> Get-Member -InputObject $svc -MemberType Method

   TypeName: System.Management.ManagementObject#root\cimv2\Win32_Service

Name                  MemberType Definition
----                  ---------- ----------
Change                Method     System.Management.ManagementBaseObject Change(System.String DisplayName, System.String PathName...
ChangeStartMode       Method     System.Management.ManagementBaseObject ChangeStartMode(System.String StartMode)
Delete                Method     System.Management.ManagementBaseObject Delete()
GetSecurityDescriptor Method     System.Management.ManagementBaseObject GetSecurityDescriptor()
InterrogateService    Method     System.Management.ManagementBaseObject InterrogateService()
PauseService          Method     System.Management.ManagementBaseObject PauseService()
ResumeService         Method     System.Management.ManagementBaseObject ResumeService()

[output cut]

4). We are only interested in delete method since we want to delete the service. Now, all you need to do is to call the delete method and the service will be removed. This is done with the following command.

PS D:\MyScripts> $svc.delete()

__GENUS          : 2
__CLASS          : __PARAMETERS
__SUPERCLASS     :
__DYNASTY        : __PARAMETERS
__RELPATH        :
__PROPERTY_COUNT : 1
__DERIVATION     : {}
__SERVER         :
__NAMESPACE      :
__PATH           :
ReturnValue      : 0
PSComputerName   :

5). Use the Get-Service cmdlet to confirm if the service is deleted or still exists.

PS D:\MyScripts> Get-Service TFTPServer
Get-Service : Cannot find any service with service name 'TFTPServer'.
At line:1 char:1
+ Get-Service TFTPServer
+ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
    + CategoryInfo          : ObjectNotFound: (TFTPServer:String) [Get-Service], ServiceCommandException
    + FullyQualifiedErrorId : NoServiceFoundForGivenName,Microsoft.PowerShell.Commands.GetServiceCommand

The above process is not so difficult. But if you believe in shorthand one-liners, below is a one-liner to delete a service:

PS D:\MyScripts> (Get-WmiObject Win32_Service -Filter "Name='TFTPServer'").Delete()

__GENUS          : 2
__CLASS          : __PARAMETERS
__SUPERCLASS     :
__DYNASTY        : __PARAMETERS
__RELPATH        :
__PROPERTY_COUNT : 1
__DERIVATION     : {}
__SERVER         :
__NAMESPACE      :
__PATH           :
ReturnValue      : 0
PSComputerName   :

The more you use Windows PowerShell, the more you will be able to understand it. Try to use aliases to shorten the commands and use tab-completion feature where-ever possible.

Thats all about Managing windows services using PowerShell. In the next section, we will look into how to Manage Windows Processes using PowerShell.

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