Services

Applies To: Windows 7, Windows 8, Windows Server 2008 R2, Windows Server 2012

You can use the Services Microsoft Management Console (MMC) snap-in to manage services that are running on local or remote computers — for example, to stop or start a service. You can also manage services using the sc config command.

What is a service?

A service is an application type that runs in the system background without a user interface and is similar to a UNIX daemon process. Services provide core operating system features, such as Web serving, event logging, file serving, printing, cryptography, and error reporting.

What can I do with the Services snap-in?

You can perform the following actions for services on local and remote computers:

  • Start, stop, pause, resume, or disable services.

  • Set up recovery actions to take place if a service fails — for example, restarting the service automatically or restarting the computer.

  • Run services in the security context of a user account that is different from the logged-on user or the default computer account.

  • Enable or disable services for a particular hardware profile.

  • Export and save service information to a .txt or .csv file.

  • View the status and description of each service.

  • View the service dependencies.

To start the Services snap-in

  • Click Start , in the Start Search box, type services.msc , and then press Enter .

    To open the Services snap-in in Windows Server® 2012, click Start , type services.msc .

Note

Membership in the local Administrators group, or equivalent, is required to use the Services snap-in.

Additional references