Windows Services

Windows Services

Manage Windows background services — list, start, stop, restart, and change startup type — using PowerShell's built-in service cmdlets.

When to Use

• User wants to list running or stopped Windows services
• User asks to start, stop, or restart a specific service
• User wants to change a service's startup type (automatic, manual, disabled)
• User needs to find which service owns a process or port
• User wants to check if a service is healthy or crashing

How to Use

List all running services

Get-Service | Where-Object Status -eq 'Running' |
  Select-Object Name, DisplayName, Status |
  Sort-Object DisplayName

Find a specific service

Get-Service -Name "*sql*" | Select-Object Name, DisplayName, Status, StartType

Start, stop, or restart a service

Start-Service   -Name "wuauserv"         # Windows Update — start
Stop-Service    -Name "wuauserv" -Force  # Windows Update — stop
Restart-Service -Name "Spooler"          # Print Spooler  — restart

Check service startup type

Get-Service -Name "wuauserv" | Select-Object Name, StartType, Status

Change startup type (Manual / Disabled / Automatic)

Set-Service -Name "wuauserv" -StartupType Manual     # won't start automatically
Set-Service -Name "DiagTrack" -StartupType Disabled  # blocked from starting
Set-Service -Name "Spooler"   -StartupType Automatic # restores auto-start

List services that failed to start

Get-Service | Where-Object { $_.StartType -eq 'Automatic' -and $_.Status -ne 'Running' } |
  Select-Object Name, DisplayName, Status

Find service by process ID

$pid = 1234
Get-WmiObject Win32_Service | Where-Object ProcessId -eq $pid |
  Select-Object Name, DisplayName, State, ProcessId

View service dependencies

(Get-Service -Name "LanmanServer").DependentServices
(Get-Service -Name "LanmanServer").ServicesDependedOn

Examples

"Is Windows Update service running?" → Get-Service -Name "wuauserv" | Select-Object Name, Status, StartType

"Stop and disable the Print Spooler service" → Stop-Service -Name "Spooler" -Force; Set-Service -Name "Spooler" -StartupType Disabled

"Which automatic services are currently stopped?" → Get-Service | Where-Object { $_.StartType -eq 'Automatic' -and $_.Status -ne 'Running' }

Cautions

• Stopping critical services (LanmanServer, DHCP, DNS) can disrupt network connectivity
• Starting/stopping services may require an elevated session depending on the service security descriptor
• Set-Service -StartupType Disabled prevents the service from starting even manually until re-enabled
• Use Get-Service | Where-Object Status -eq 'Running' | Measure-Object to get a quick service health count