How can I delete a service in Windows?

I have a couple old services that I want to completely uninstall. How can I do this?

Use the SC command, like this (you need to be on a command prompt to execute the commands in this post):

SC STOP shortservicename
SC DELETE shortservicename

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Note: You need to run the command prompt as an administrator, not just logged in as the administrator, but also with administrative rights. If you get errors above about not having the necessary access rights to stop and/or delete the service, run the command prompt as an administrator. You can do this by searching for the command prompt on your start menu and then right-clicking and selecting "Run as administrator". Note to PowerShell users: sc is aliased to set-content. So sc delete service will actually create a file called delete with the content service. To do this in Powershell, use sc.exe delete service instead

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If you need to find the short service name of a service, use the following command to generate a text file containing a list of services and their statuses:

SC QUERY state= all >"C:\Service List.txt"

For a more concise list, execute this command:

SC QUERY state= all | FIND "_NAME"

The short service name will be listed just above the display name, like this:

SERVICE_NAME: MyService
DISPLAY_NAME: My Special Service

And thus to delete that service:

SC STOP MyService
SC DELETE MyService

Click Start | Run and type regedit in the Open: line. Click OK.

Navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services

Scroll down the left pane, locate the service name, right click it and select Delete.

Reboot the system.

Use services.msc or (Start > Control Panel > Administrative Tools > Services) to find the service in question. Double-click to see the service name and the path to the executable.

Check the exe version information for a clue as to the owner of the service, and use Add/Remove programs to do a clean uninstall if possible.

Failing that, from the command prompt:

sc stop servicexyz
sc delete servicexyz

No restart should be required.

SC DELETE "service name"

Run the command on cmd as Administrator otherwise you will get this error :-

> openservice failed 5 access is denied

As described above I executed:

sc delete ServiceName

However this didn't work as I was executing it from PowerShell.

When using PowerShell you must specify the full path to sc.exe because PowerShell has a default alias for sc assigning it to Set-Content. Since it's a valid command it doesn't actually show an error message.

To resolve this I executed it as follows:

C:\Windows\System32\sc.exe delete ServiceName

If you have Windows Vista or above please run this from a command prompt as Administrator:

sc delete [your service name as shown in service.msc e.g moneytransfer]

For example: sc delete moneytransfer

Delete the folder C:\Program Files\BBRTL\moneytransfer\

Find moneytransfer registry keys and delete them:

 HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Installer\Products\
 HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall\
 HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\EventLog\
 HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet002\Services\
 HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet002\Services\EventLog\
 HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Classes\Installer\Assemblies\ [remove .exe references]
 HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Installer\Folders

These steps have been tested on Windows XP, Windows 7, Windows Vista, Windows Server 2003, and Windows Server 2008.

We can do it in two different ways

Remove Windows Service via Registry

Its very easy to remove a service from registry if you know the right path. Here is how I did that:

1. Run Regedit or Regedt32

2. Go to the registry entry "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE/SYSTEM/CurrentControlSet/Services"

3. Look for the service that you want delete and delete it. You can look at the keys to know what files the service was using and delete them as well (if necessary).

Delete Windows Service via Command Window

Alternatively, you can also use command prompt and delete a service using following command:

sc delete

You can also create service by using following command

sc create "MorganTechService" binpath= "C:\Program Files\MorganTechSPace\myservice.exe"

Note: You may have to reboot the system to get the list updated in service manager.

If they are .NET created services you can use the installutil.exe with the /u switch its in the .net framework folder like C:\Windows\Microsoft.NET\Framework64\v2.0.50727

Here is a vbs script that was passed down to me:

Set servicelist = GetObject("winmgmts:").InstancesOf ("Win32_Service")

for each service in servicelist
    sname = lcase(service.name)
    If sname = "NameOfMyService" Then 
        msgbox(sname)
        service.delete ' the internal name of your service
    end if
next

sc delete name

Before removing the service you should review the dependencies.

You can check it:

Open services.msc and find the service name, switch to the "Dependencies" tab.

Source: http://www.sysadmit.com/2016/03/windows-eliminar-un-servicio.html

This did the job for me on Windows 10:

• start the cmd.exe as admin
• run SC DELETE "com.docker.service"
• reinstall docker

For me my service that I created had to be uninstalled in Control Panel > Programs and Features

You can use my small service list editor utility Service Manager

You can choose any service > Modify > Delete. Method works immediately, no reboot required.

Executable file: [Download]

Source code: [Download]

Blog post: [BlogLink]

Service editor class: WinServiceUtils.cs