How To Delete A Service

Hi, does anybody knows how to delete a service from the system??? that's it, deletes it from the services management console and from the device manager, especially those left behind by software or hardware uninstallation.Best regards,

Open regedit and browse to the following key

'HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE/SYSTEM/CurrentControlSet/Services'

 

Locate the service and delete it. You'll have to restart the machine for the changes to take effect.

Open regedit and browse to the following key

'HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE/SYSTEM/CurrentControlSet/Services'

 

Locate the service and delete it. You'll have to restart the machine for the changes to take effect.

 

Thanks, tell me something, i notice that there are more ControlSets -ControlSet002, ControlSet003 and ControlSet004- with the same Services key, do i need to delete these keys from the ControlSet002, ControlSet003 and ControlSet004 too???

 

Best regards,

Easier to do it in command prompt, well from my point of view.

The command is SC which is Service Control. These commands should be typed as is, spaces, characters etc, keep it like that.

To see a list of all service:

sc query state= all | findstr "SERVICE_NAME"

To delete a service:

sc delete service_name

Where service_name is the name of the service, which is why I gave you the command to output all the service names.

I'm glad to see things where command line can be used.

Cheers,

MC

Hi,

Hi, does anybody knows how to delete a service from the system??? that's it, deletes it from the services management console and from the device manager, especially those left behind by software or hardware uninstallation.
Best regards,

please look into the reg key [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\]

and try to find your application name.. (some times though its not easy, since it may have a alpha numeric no.)

if you get it, delete it.
if you don't then I guess its easier to download a registry cleaner
check this out http://www.pctools.com/product-eol/index/faq/utility/

Hope this helps


Hi mastercomputers,

that was really cool what you said..
Did not know this..

thanks

Hi, does anybody knows how to delete a service from the system??? that's it, deletes it from the services management console and from the device manager, especially those left behind by software or hardware uninstallation.
Best regards,

This is how you delete a service

Normally it should not be necessary to manually delete a service. Uninstalling an application should remove its associated service (if any).

However, should it be necessary to manually remove a service:

Run Regedit or regedt32.

Find the registry entry:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE/SYSTEM/CurrentControlSet/Services

Find the service there and delete it.
You may wish to look at the keys and see what files the service was using and perhaps delete them also.
Note:

You will have to reboot before the list gets updated in server manager.

I have had it pointed out that some programs are cunning and prevent you from removing their service easily. (For example the spyware\malware called âCommand Serviceâ - "cmdService".) These change the permissions to make it more difficult for you to delete them. For these you will have to right click on the âserviceâ in regedit (regedt32), go to permissions and grant the administrator full control before the service can be deleted.

Thanks everybody for your help, actually i remove the problematic left behind services simply by delete the related keys from the registry and from the HD, but i still have it in the other keys -ControlSet002,ControlSet003 and ControlSet004- that i assume that there are simply backups keys, am i right????? hope yes.MC, where can i find the sc tool that you mention in your post??? because i search it in my computer and i can't find it. Sorry, I don't mention earlier but i'm working with Win 2k Prof. SP4 maybe this tool don't exists in this version.Best regards,

Don't have a Windows 2000 machine in front of me now, but I don't think the sc command was in there. From what I found here, you might have to use the delsrv.exe command in the Windows 2000 Developer Kit.

When it all comes down to which method to use, try the one that avoids the registry (mastercomputers' method ). You want to avoid doing anything in the registry if you don't have to. So use the sc command if you have XP and try using delsrv.exe instead if you have Windows 2000.

Sorry the command above was for WinXP.

If you use Win2K then you'll need delsrv.exe.

You will then have to do:

delsrv service_name

To get the lists of services, I think SCLIST was the command, but again these may be in the Resource Kit, which you should get if you administrate the computer.

Cheers,

MC

Sorry the command above was for WinXP.

 

If you use Win2K then you'll need delsrv.exe.

 

You will then have to do:

delsrv service_name

To get the lists of services, I think SCLIST was the command, but again these may be in the Resource Kit, which you should get if you administrate the computer.

 

Cheers,

 

MC

 

Thanks, i just downloaded the delsrv command line tool and test it, and only to say that it works perfectly, the only problem with it is the html page that came with it, it's outdated and show wrong examples.

 

Anyway, the important thing here is that it WORKS

 

BTW, some time ago i downloaded a fine tool to get all the services installed in my pc, its name is serviwin, this tool not only shows the services, it also shows all the drivers you have installed, you find it at http://www.nirsoft.net/.

 

Best regards,

Edited January 17, 2007 by TavoxPeru (see edit history)

I have windows xp and granted the admin. full permissions, but there is an error when I try to delete the key. How do I restore the key so that it can be deleted?

Well, you can use SC.EXE command from command line to delete any windows service forcefully if by any chance application doesnt deletes after uninstall.

Read more on "MS Techno Blogging" http://forums.xisto.com/no_longer_exists/

Replying to TavoxPeru

SC is a XP command and does not work on Windows 2000.  Nice try. 

The only option is to use the command Net Stop "service name" to stop the service then delete the appropriate key in the registry under HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE/SYSTEM/CurrentControlSet/Services. 

if you are doing this via script you will need to check the service until it stops completly then remove the reg key.

-reply by StackMaster