Posted onFebruary 24, 2014 (Revised November 11, 2019)
If you want to understand what’s really going on with the programs on your computer, then look no further than Microsoft’s excellent (and free) Process Explorer. Think of it as the “Task Manager on steroids”, with the ability to show all processes, threads, handles, and of course, Windows Services running on your PC.
When launched, Process Explorer shows a colorful tree of all the active processes. The interface automatically refreshes itself every few seconds to highlight processes as they come and go. All Windows Services run under the wninit.exe > services.exe branch:
Double-clicking an entry allows you to dig into a specific process. For example, here is what is shown for spoolsv.exe, the Windows Print Spooler:
You can start, stop, restart or even change the permissions of the Spooler service from the Services tab:
Back on Process Explorer’s main screen, summon the Lower Pane (View > Show Lower Pane) for some serious detective work. You can review all DLLs loaded, or even better, see all the files, registry keys and other objects locked by a process by viewing Handles for the lower pane (View > Lower Pane View > Handles). Here we see that iTunes (being run as a service with AlwaysUp) is using the “counters.dat” file:
And perhaps most useful of all, Process Explorer can help you track down which application is preventing you from deleting a file or folder! Choose Find > Find Handle or DLL… and search for the file by name. Here we can see that the counters.dat file used by iTunes is also being held by Explorer and QuickBooks:
Process Explorer has many other interesting features. Easily terminate any process (and all its sup-processes if necessary), boost the priority of any process to make it run faster, and much more. Enjoy!
Support for Windows XP will end on April 8, 2014. After this date, Microsoft has announced that it will will no longer provide updates for its 12-year old operating system — even though it still commands a whopping 29% share of all desktops, second only to Windows 7’s 48%. However, facing the reality of a potential security disaster, with viruses running unchecked without the usual defensive patches, Microsoft recently relaxed their stance and extended antimalware support of XP for an extra 15 months.
Here at Core Technologies, we will start to phase out support for Windows XP this year too. We’re not planning on removing any XP-specific features and capabilities from our software, but our team will no longer be testing or certifying new software releases on XP.
Will this cause you any problems? Please let us know!
Posted onDecember 28, 2013 (Revised April 30, 2021)
If you manage Windows Services and are comfortable working from the command line, then the Windows NET.EXE command should be in your toolkit. Use it to easily start, stop, pause or restart any service from an elevated command prompt, or in a convenient script/batch file.
Using NET to stop a Windows Service
To stop a service, run:
net stop <Service-Name>
where <Service-Name> is the name of the service. Be sure to enclose it in quotes if it contains a space!
For example, to stop the Print Spooler service (named “Spooler”), run:
net stop Spooler
Here is what it looks like on our Windows Server 2016 computer:
Notice that the NET command will wait for the service to stop before continuing. The only exception is when the service is unresponsive or takes more than 30 seconds to comply.
Starting a Windows Service with NET
To start an idle Windows Service, run:
net start <Service-Name>
If all goes well, your service (and any other service it depends on to operate) will be started after a few seconds:
How to Restart a Windows Service with NET.EXE
To restart a service, say from a batch file, chain the “net stop” and “net start” commands together like this:
net stop <Service-Name> net start <Service-Name>
NET will also Pause and Resume Windows Services
Not all services support pause and resume, but if you have one that does, NET can come in handy there as well.
Posted onNovember 28, 2013 (Revised November 10, 2019)
As AlwaysUp enters its 10th year of running any application as a Windows Service, we are excited to announce that readers of the popular Windows IT Pro Magazine have recognized it as a Best Windows Utility for 2013! AlwaysUp has earned the coveted silver medal, bested only by Microsoft’s incredible Sysinternals suite.
According to Windows IT Pro, the 2013 Community Choice Awards represent the cream of the crop in the various markets the magazine covers. Jason Bovberg, the magazine’s senior editor, reported:
“Participation in our 2013 Community Choice awards was excellent. The community both nominates and votes for the best products of the year, ensuring a nice breadth of inclusion in the surveys. Our winners have earned a unique honor to stand out among their peers as winners of our Community Choice Awards.”
Posted onOctober 30, 2013 (Revised March 19, 2022)
Hands down, the most important GUI utility for managing your Windows Services is Microsoft’s Services Control Panel Application — nicknamed “Services.msc” because it can be invoked with that command. This useful application (pictured below) lists every service installed on your PC and allows you to easily to start, stop or configure each one. It has been a fixture of Windows since the first release of NT, way back in 1993.
Starting the Services Application
You can launch the Services application in several ways:
With the Windows Key
Hold down the Windows Key and press R to open the Run window:
Type services.msc in the Open field and hit return. Services should start in a second or two.
From the Start button (Windows 7 and earlier)
Click the Start button
Type services.msc in the search field and hit return.
From the Control Panel
Click on the Start button and choose Control Panel. Or, on Windows 8/8.1, press Windows Key + I and select Control Panel from the charms menu on the right.
In the window that comes up, enter the word services in the search box in the upper right to filter the contents, and click on the View local services link to summon the Services window.
Using the Services Application
Start/stop/restart/pause/resume a service
Simply highlight the service on the list and click on the appropriate toolbar button. Note that most services don’t support pause & resume, so those buttons will probably be disabled.
You can also right-click on the service entry and start it from the context menu:
Modify a service
Double click a service (or right-click it and select Properties) to bring up the service’s Properties window:
From there you can start or stop the service, change the account that the service runs in, configure what to do if the service crashes and see what services must be started before this one.
Manage services on another computer
Assuming that your account has the necessary permissions to access the remote PC, simply select Connect to another computer… from the Action menu and enter the name (or IP address) of the other computer to see its list of services:
Change a service’s description (which can be achieved by editing the registry)
Nevertheless, Services is the best GUI tool for managing your Windows Services
Despite its few shortcomings, Services.msc remains an extremely valuable tool. It is easy to use, is available on every version of Windows, and effortlessly handles a wide range of basic tasks on local and remote computers. Look to it first when working with Windows Services!
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