{"id":6949,"date":"2019-06-28T05:51:49","date_gmt":"2019-06-28T12:51:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.coretechnologies.com\/blog\/?p=6949"},"modified":"2025-12-28T23:40:14","modified_gmt":"2025-12-29T07:40:14","slug":"power","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.coretechnologies.com\/blog\/windows-services\/power\/","title":{"rendered":"Essential Windows Services: Power"},"content":{"rendered":"<div align=\"center\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"no-lazy-load\" src=\"\/blog\/images\/power-150x150.webp\" title=\"Windows Power Service\" alt=\"Windows Power Service\" width=\"150\" height=\"150\" border=\"0\" \/><\/div>\n<div id=\"blog-toc-container\" style=\"margin-top:20px;\">\n<p id=\"blog-toc-title\">In this article&#8230;<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"#what-is-power\">What is the Power service?<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"#disable\">Is it safe to disable the Power service?<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"#how-to-stop\">The &#8220;Stop&#8221; button is disabled. How can I stop the Power service?<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"#kill-process\">What will happen if I kill the Power service&#8217;s process?<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"#not-starting\">The Power service isn&#8217;t starting. Help!<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"#questions\">Questions? Problems?<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n<p><a name=\"what-is-power\"><\/a><\/p>\n<hr class=\"blog-section\">\n<div style=\"width:100%;margin-bottom:30px;\">\n<div style=\"margin:0px;float:right;\"><a href=\"#top\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.coretechnologies.com\/images\/top.jpg\" border=\"0\" width=\"50\" height=\"18\" title=\"Go to the top\" alt=\"\" \/><\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<h2 class=\"blog-caption\">What is the Power service?<\/h2>\n<p>The Power service implements your computer&#8217;s power schemes, policies and notifications as configured in the Control Panel:<\/p>\n<div align=\"center\"><a href=\"\/blog\/images\/control-panel-power-options.png\" class=\"zoomPopup\" title=\"Control Panel Power Options\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"image-padding\" src=\"\/blog\/images\/control-panel-power-options.png\" title=\"Control Panel Power Options (click to enlarge)\" alt=\"Control Panel Power Options\" border=\"0\" width=\"520\" \/><\/a><\/div>\n<p>The service&#8217;s name (and display name) is <b>Power<\/b> and it runs inside the shared services host process, <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Svchost.exe\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">svchost.exe<\/a>:<\/p>\n<div align=\"center\"><a href=\"\/blog\/images\/power-windows-service.png\" class=\"zoomPopup\" title=\"Power Windows Service\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"image-padding\" src=\"\/blog\/images\/power-windows-service.png\" title=\"Power Windows Service (click to enlarge)\" alt=\"Power Windows Service\" border=\"0\" \/><\/a><\/div>\n<p><a name=\"disable\"><\/a><\/p>\n<hr class=\"blog-section\">\n<div style=\"width:100%;margin-bottom:30px;\">\n<div style=\"margin:0px;float:right;\"><a href=\"#top\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.coretechnologies.com\/images\/top.jpg\" border=\"0\" width=\"50\" height=\"18\" title=\"Go to the top\" alt=\"\" \/><\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<h2 class=\"blog-caption\">Is it safe to disable the Power service?<\/h2>\n<p>In their <a href=\"https:\/\/docs.microsoft.com\/en-us\/windows-server\/security\/windows-services\/security-guidelines-for-disabling-system-services-in-windows-server#power\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">guidance on disabling system services on Windows Server 2016<\/a>, Microsoft does not indicate that it is OK to disable the Power service. Indeed, they punt on specific guidance altogether, commenting that &#8220;the impact of disabling the service has not been fully evaluated&#8221;. <\/p>\n<p>Their ultimate recommendation is to stick with the default configuration &mdash; automatic start at boot.<\/p>\n<p><a name=\"how-to-stop\"><\/a><\/p>\n<hr class=\"blog-section\">\n<div style=\"width:100%;margin-bottom:30px;\">\n<div style=\"margin:0px;float:right;\"><a href=\"#top\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.coretechnologies.com\/images\/top.jpg\" border=\"0\" width=\"50\" height=\"18\" title=\"Go to the top\" alt=\"\" \/><\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<h2 class=\"blog-caption\">The &#8220;Stop&#8221; button is disabled. How can I stop the Power service?<\/h2>\n<p>If you examine the <a href=\"\/blog\/images\/power-windows-service.png\" class=\"zoomPopup\" title=\"Power Windows Service\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">service&#8217;s screenshot<\/a>, you will notice that the Stop button is disabled &mdash; indicating that the service cannot be stopped.<\/p>\n<p>And even the versatile <a href=\"\/blog\/windows-services\/essential-tools-for-windows-services-net-command\/\">NET STOP command<\/a> run as an administrator will fail, complaining that the service isn&#8217;t in the right &#8220;state&#8221;:<\/p>\n<div align=\"center\"><a href=\"\/blog\/images\/net-stop-power-fails.gif\" class=\"zoomPopup\" title=\"Net stop Power fails\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"image-padding\" src=\"\/blog\/images\/net-stop-power-fails.gif\" title=\"Net stop Power fails (click to enlarge)\" alt=\"Net stop Power fails\" border=\"0\" width=\"560\" \/><\/a><\/div>\n<p>This is different from the typical permission\/rights problem seen when attempting to stop other important services. Here, <b>the Power service is actively refusing to be stopped under any condition<\/b> and there is no way around it.<\/p>\n<p><a name=\"kill-process\"><\/a><\/p>\n<hr class=\"blog-section\">\n<div style=\"width:100%;margin-bottom:30px;\">\n<div style=\"margin:0px;float:right;\"><a href=\"#top\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.coretechnologies.com\/images\/top.jpg\" border=\"0\" width=\"50\" height=\"18\" title=\"Go to the top\" alt=\"\" \/><\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<h2 class=\"blog-caption\">What will happen if I kill the Power service&#8217;s process?<\/h2>\n<p>Your computer will shut down, immediately.<\/p>\n<p>This is because the Power service is hosted by an instance of the shared service host process (svchost.exe) also running these core services:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>\n<p><b>Background Tasks Infrastructure Service \/ BrokerInfrastructure<\/b>: Responsible for background tasks.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<p><b><a href=\"\/blog\/windows-services\/dcomlaunch\/\">DCOM Server Process Launcher \/ DcomLaunch<\/a><\/b>: Launches COM &amp; DCOM servers.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<p><b>Local Session Manager \/ LSM<\/b>: Manages local user sessions.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Task Manager will confirm that all four services have the same PID (process identifier):<\/p>\n<div align=\"center\"><a href=\"\/blog\/images\/task-manager-power-service.png\" class=\"zoomPopup\" title=\"The Power Service in Task Manager\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"image-padding\" src=\"\/blog\/images\/task-manager-power-service.png\" title=\"The Power Service in Task Manager (click to enlarge)\" alt=\"The Power Service in Task Manager\" border=\"0\" width=\"520\" \/><\/a><\/div>\n<p>So killing that svchost process will stop all four services.<\/p>\n<p>If you choose to press on and try to end the process, Task Manager will warn you of the dire consequences:<\/p>\n<div align=\"center\"><a href=\"\/blog\/images\/task-manager-svchost-warning.png\" class=\"zoomPopup\" title=\"Kill Power Service warning\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"image-padding\" src=\"\/blog\/images\/task-manager-svchost-warning.png\" title=\"Kill Power Service warning (click to enlarge)\" alt=\"Kill Power Service warning\" border=\"0\" \/><\/a><\/div>\n<p>And that is no idle threat! We were greeted with this delightful <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Blue_Screen_of_Death\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">blue screen of death<\/a> after terminating the process on our Windows Server 2019 machine:<\/p>\n<div align=\"center\"><a href=\"\/blog\/images\/bsod-critical-process-died.png\" class=\"zoomPopup\" title=\"Blue screen of Death: A critical process died\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"image-padding\" src=\"\/blog\/images\/bsod-critical-process-died.png\" title=\"Blue screen of Death: A critical process died (click to enlarge)\" alt=\"Blue screen of Death: A critical process died\" border=\"0\" \/><\/a><\/div>\n<p>Be careful!<\/p>\n<p><a name=\"not-starting\"><\/a><\/p>\n<hr class=\"blog-section\">\n<div style=\"width:100%;margin-bottom:30px;\">\n<div style=\"margin:0px;float:right;\"><a href=\"#top\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.coretechnologies.com\/images\/top.jpg\" border=\"0\" width=\"50\" height=\"18\" title=\"Go to the top\" alt=\"\" \/><\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<h2 class=\"blog-caption\">The Power service isn&#8217;t starting. Help!<\/h2>\n<p>We suggest the following:<\/p>\n<ol>\n<li>\n<p><b>Reboot your computer.<\/b> Hopefully you have fallen victim to a temporary glitch and sanity will be restored when the operating system next starts.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<p><b>Manually run Windows Update.<\/b> If you&#8217;re lucky, the Microsoft Windows engineers have already found and fixed the problem with their software.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<p><b>Seek expert help.<\/b> Start with a google search for a quick fix; move on to your local administrator if no resolution is forthcoming.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<p><b>Reinstall Windows.<\/b> You may have to start over from scratch if nothing else works&#8230; \ud83d\ude41<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p><a name=\"questions\"><\/a><\/p>\n<hr class=\"blog-section\">\n<div style=\"width:100%;margin-bottom:30px;\">\n<div style=\"margin:0px;float:right;\"><a href=\"#top\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.coretechnologies.com\/images\/top.jpg\" border=\"0\" width=\"50\" height=\"18\" title=\"Go to the top\" alt=\"\" \/><\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<h2 class=\"blog-caption\">Questions? Problems?<\/h2>\n<p>If you&#8217;d like to know more about the Windows Power service, or you have a specific problem, please feel free to <a href=\"\/support\/\">get in touch<\/a>. We&#8217;ll do our best to help you!<\/p>\n<div style=\"margin-top:30px\" align=\"center\">\n<div class=\"cta-button-1\">\n<table role=\"presentation\" cellspacing=\"0\" cellpadding=\"0\" border=\"0\" align=\"left\">\n<tbody>\n<tr>\n<td align=\"center\"><a href=\"\/blog\/tag\/essential-windows-services\/\" title=\"Find more important Windows Services\"><span><nobr>More Essential Windows Services&#8230;<\/nobr><\/span><\/a><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<!-- relpost-thumb-wrapper --><div class=\"relpost-thumb-wrapper\"><!-- filter-class --><div class=\"relpost-thumb-container\"><style>.relpost-block-single-image, .relpost-post-image { margin-bottom: 10px; }<\/style><h3>You may also like...<\/h3><div style=\"clear: both\"><\/div><div style=\"clear: both\"><\/div><!-- relpost-block-container --><div class=\"relpost-block-container relpost-block-column-layout\" style=\"--relposth-columns: 3;--relposth-columns_t: 2; --relposth-columns_m: 2\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.coretechnologies.com\/blog\/windows-services\/restart-service-when-event-reported\/\"class=\"relpost-block-single\" ><div class=\"relpost-custom-block-single\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"relpost-block-single-image\" alt=\"Q&amp;A: How do I Restart a Windows Service when an Event is Reported?\"  src=\"https:\/\/www.coretechnologies.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/restart-service-event-trigger-150x150-1.png\" style=\"aspect-ratio:1\/1\" style=\"aspect-ratio:1\/1\"><\/img><div class=\"relpost-block-single-text\"  style=\"height: 75px;font-family: Arial;  font-size: 12px;  color: #333333;\"><h2 class=\"relpost_card_title\">Q&amp;A: How do I Restart a Windows Service when an Event is Reported?<\/h2><\/div><\/div><\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/www.coretechnologies.com\/blog\/windows-services\/how-to-restart-service-daily\/\"class=\"relpost-block-single\" ><div class=\"relpost-custom-block-single\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"relpost-block-single-image\" alt=\"How to Restart a Windows Service Every Day (or Week)\"  src=\"https:\/\/www.coretechnologies.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/restart-windows-service-150x150-2.png\" style=\"aspect-ratio:1\/1\" style=\"aspect-ratio:1\/1\"><\/img><div class=\"relpost-block-single-text\"  style=\"height: 75px;font-family: Arial;  font-size: 12px;  color: #333333;\"><h2 class=\"relpost_card_title\">How to Restart a Windows Service Every Day (or Week)<\/h2><\/div><\/div><\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/www.coretechnologies.com\/blog\/windows-services\/essential-tools-for-windows-services-net-command\/\"class=\"relpost-block-single\" ><div class=\"relpost-custom-block-single\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"relpost-block-single-image\" alt=\"Use NET.EXE to start or stop your Windows Service\"  src=\"https:\/\/www.coretechnologies.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/windows-net-command-150x150.png\" style=\"aspect-ratio:1\/1\" style=\"aspect-ratio:1\/1\"><\/img><div class=\"relpost-block-single-text\"  style=\"height: 75px;font-family: Arial;  font-size: 12px;  color: #333333;\"><h2 class=\"relpost_card_title\">Essential Tools for Windows Services: The NET Command<\/h2><\/div><\/div><\/a><\/div><!-- close relpost-block-container --><div style=\"clear: both\"><\/div><\/div><!-- close filter class --><\/div><!-- close relpost-thumb-wrapper -->","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In this article&#8230; What is the Power service? Is it safe to disable the Power service? The &#8220;Stop&#8221; button is disabled. How can I stop the Power service? What will happen if I kill the Power service&#8217;s process? The Power &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.coretechnologies.com\/blog\/windows-services\/power\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":6995,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[78,118,196],"class_list":["post-6949","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-windows-services","tag-essential-windows-services","tag-power-service","tag-windows-services-2"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.coretechnologies.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6949","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.coretechnologies.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.coretechnologies.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.coretechnologies.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.coretechnologies.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6949"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.coretechnologies.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6949\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13302,"href":"https:\/\/www.coretechnologies.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6949\/revisions\/13302"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.coretechnologies.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6995"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.coretechnologies.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6949"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.coretechnologies.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6949"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.coretechnologies.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6949"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}