Windows Service: History
View Latest Version
Please note this is an old version of this entry, which may differ significantly from the current revision.
Subjects: Computer Science, Theory & Methods
Contributor:
HandWiki

In Windows NT operating systems, a Windows service is a computer program that operates in the background. It is similar in concept to a Unix daemon. A Windows service must conform to the interface rules and protocols of the Service Control Manager, the component responsible for managing Windows services. It is the Services and Controller app, services.exe, that launches all the services and manages their actions, such as start, end, etc. Windows services can be configured to start when the operating system is started and run in the background as long as Windows is running. Alternatively, they can be started manually or by an event. Windows NT operating systems include numerous services which run in context of three user accounts: System, Network Service and Local Service. These Windows components are often associated with Host Process for Windows Services. Because Windows services operate in the context of their own dedicated user accounts, they can operate when a user is not logged on. Prior to Windows Vista, services installed as an "interactive service" could interact with Windows desktop and show a graphical user interface. In Windows Vista, however, interactive services are deprecated and may not operate properly, as a result of Windows Service hardening.

  • interactive services
  • services.exe
  • operating systems

1. Administration

Windows administrators can manage services via:

  • The Services snap-in (found under Administrative Tools in Windows Control Panel)
  • Sc.exe
  • Windows PowerShell

1.1. 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[2]
  • 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.[3]
    • 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

1.2. Command Line

The command-line tool to manage Windows services is sc.exe. It is available for all versions of Windows NT.[4] This utility is included with Windows XP[5] and later[6] 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.[6]

The sc command duplicates some features of the net command.[7]

The ReactOS version was developed by Ged Murphy and is licensed under the GPL.[8]

sc sub-commands
Name Description Windows support ReactOS support
query Show service status Yes Yes
queryex Show extended service info (e.g. pid, flags) Yes Yes
start Start a service Yes Yes
pause Pause a service Yes Yes
interrogate Send an INTERROGATE control request to a service Yes Yes
continue Continue a service Yes Yes
stop Stop a service Yes Yes
config permanently change the service configuration Yes Yes
description Change a service description Yes Yes
failure Change the actions taken by a service upon failure Yes Yes
failureflag   Yes No
sidtype   Yes No
privs   Yes No
managedaccount   Yes No
qc Show the service config (e.g. dependencies, full path etc.) Yes Yes
qdescription Query a service description Yes Yes
qfailure   Yes No
qfailureflag   Yes No
qsidtype   Yes No
qprivs   Yes No
qtriggerinfo   Yes No
qpreferrednode   Yes No
qmanagedaccount   Yes No
qprotection   Yes No
quserservice   Yes No
delete Delete a service Yes Yes
create Create a service Yes Yes
control Send a control to a service Yes Yes
sdshow Display a service's security descriptor using SDDL Yes Yes
sdset Sets a service's security descriptor using SDDL Yes Yes
showsid   Yes No
triggerinfo   Yes No
preferrednode   Yes No
GetDisplayName Show the service DisplayName Yes Yes
GetKeyName Show the service ServiceKeyName Yes Yes
EnumDepend Show the service Dependencies Yes Yes
boot   Yes No
Lock   Yes No
QueryLock   Yes No

Examples

The following example enumerates the status for active services & drivers.[9]

C:\>sc query

The following example displays the status for the Windows Event log service.[9]

C:\>sc query eventlog

1.3. 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]

1.4. Other Management Tools

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.[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.

2. Installation

Windows services are installed and removed via *.INF setup scripts by SetupAPI; an installed service can be started immediately following its installation, and a running service can be stopped before its deinstallation.[19][20][21]

3. Development

3.1. Writing Native Services

For a program to run as a Windows service, the program needs to be written to handle service start, stop, and pause messages from the Service Control Manager (SCM) through the System Services API. SCM is the Windows component responsible for managing service processes.

3.2. 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]

The content is sourced from: https://handwiki.org/wiki/Software:Windows_service

References

  1. "Services overview". TechNet. Microsoft. https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc783643%28v=ws.10%29.aspx. 
  2. "Start, stop, pause, resume, or restart a service". TechNet. Microsoft. https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc736564%28v=WS.10%29.aspx. 
  3. "ServiceInstaller.DelayedAutoStart Property (System.ServiceProcess)". Microsoft. http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/system.serviceprocess.serviceinstaller.delayedautostart.aspxSee Remarks section 
  4. "How to create a Windows service by using Sc.exe". Support. Microsoft. 11 September 2011. http://support.microsoft.com/kb/251192. 
  5. "Command-line reference A-Z: SC". TechNet. Microsoft. https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb490995.aspx. 
  6. "Command-Line Reference: Sc". TechNet. Microsoft. https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc754599.aspx. "Windows 7, Windows 8, Windows Server 2003, Windows Server 2003 R2, Windows Server 2003 with SP1, Windows Server 2003 with SP2, Windows Server 2008, Windows Server 2008 R2, Windows Server 2012, Windows Vista" 
  7. SC - Service Control - Windows CMD - SS64.com https://ss64.com/nt/sc.html
  8. reactos/sc.c at master · reactos/reactos · GitHub https://github.com/reactos/reactos/blob/master/base/applications/sc/sc.c
  9. MS-DOS and Windows command line sc command https://www.computerhope.com/sc-command.htm
  10. "Get-Service". TechNet. Microsoft. https://technet.microsoft.com/library/hh849804.aspx. 
  11. "New-Service". TechNet. Microsoft. https://technet.microsoft.com/en-US/library/hh849830.aspx. 
  12. "Restart-Service". TechNet. Microsoft. https://technet.microsoft.com/en-US/library/hh849823.aspx. 
  13. "Resume-Service". TechNet. Microsoft. https://technet.microsoft.com/en-US/library/hh849811.aspx. 
  14. "Set-Service". TechNet. Microsoft. https://technet.microsoft.com/en-US/library/hh849849.aspx. 
  15. "Start-Service". TechNet. Microsoft. https://technet.microsoft.com/en-US/library/hh849825.aspx. 
  16. "Stop-Service". TechNet. Microsoft. https://technet.microsoft.com/en-US/library/hh849790.aspx. 
  17. "Suspend-Service". TechNet. Microsoft. https://technet.microsoft.com/en-US/library/hh849791.aspx. 
  18. "Start, stop, pause, resume, or restart a service". TechNet. Microsoft. https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc736564%28v=ws.10%29.aspx. 
  19. "INF AddService Directive". Microsoft. https://docs.microsoft.com/windows-hardware/drivers/install/inf-addservice-directive. 
  20. "SetupInstallServicesFromInfSection function". MSDN. Microsoft. https://msdn.microsoft.com/library/aa377402.aspx. 
  21. "SetupInstallServicesFromInfSectionEx function". MSDN. Microsoft. https://msdn.microsoft.com/library/aa377403.aspx. 
  22. "How To Create a User-Defined Service". Support. Microsoft. http://support.microsoft.com/kb/137890. 
More
©Text is available under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons-Attribution ShareAlike (CC BY-SA) license; additional terms may apply. By using this site, you agree to the Terms and Conditions and Privacy Policy.
This entry is offline, you can click here to edit this entry!
ScholarVision Creations
Feedback