I needed to remove some services the other day and could not recall the name of the tool that allows you to easily add and remove services from Windows. I think it’s srvany.exe, but I have no idea how recently it has been updated, and I couldn’t find it anyway.
So I needed to remove a service and I couldn’t figure it out. Until I stumbled across this piece of sage advice.
Namely, find your way to this registry location:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE/SYSTEM/CurrentControlSet/Services
Locate the service you want to get rid of, and delete its key. Done. You may want to stop the service first, since you won’t be able to once it’s gone (and you may not even be able to remove the service until it’s stopped). You might also want to check any filenames used in the key for the service, so that you can also remove the files associated with the service.
Comments
52 responses to “Manually Remove a Windows Service”
hi friends!
thanks for your support…i try it. it’s ok
Be aware of the fact that sometimes the description of a service as is it given in the Windowws Services list is slightly different from the name of the service as it is written in the Windows registry.
When trying to delete a service with sc or oamksvc, using the description form the services list, sometimes a message is returned that the service is not recognized as an installed service. In this case you must enter the registry and search for officially registered name.
thanks Stewart
the SC command saved my day 🙂
Sagi
Hi Norman –
Assuming that you haven’t already deleted it, I would just export the key from regedit prior to doing so. Then in the worse-case scenario, you can just import it back.
Any idea how to get a service back once you delete it? I’m thinking of deleting the windows time service, because its creating all kinds of problems with my time settings. But can I get it back later?
Hi,
I’m trying to get rid of a service on some Windows Server 2003 boxes I administer. The service in question is “NetBIOS TCP/IP Server”, and the reason for wanting it gone is that the executable (c:program filesnetworkingbinnetsrv.exe /server) simply doesn’t exist. I don’t know where this service comes from or why, but the lack of an actual executable causes the Computer Browser, Workstation and Server services to fail, thus somewhat crippling the servers.
Would it be safe to delete the service? Would this remove the imposed dependancy from the Workstation and Server services? If not, where else could I look for a remedy to this solution? The servers are all production servers and thus I’m reluctant to “just delete it and see what happens”. Any pointers are welcomed.
Thanks.
Thanks a million, I really appreciate your help. God bless U!
Worked real good for me…
Hi
I am able to delete my service from Service list and registry but it still shows in Add/Remove programs under control panel. Even I have restarted my machine also.
Please help me out.
Thanks
Karuna
Guys,
I found it easier to use /UnRegServer option to remove from the Services List and from the Registry.
A Service name abc.exe can be unregistered using the following command.
abc.exe /UnRegServer
Hope this will be helpfull to all of you!
Thanks
NKR