SC.exe

Service Control - Create, Start, Stop, Query or Delete any Windows SERVICE. The command options for SC are case sensitive.

Syntax
 SC [\\server] [command] [service_name] [Options]
Key
 server : The machine where the service is running
 service_name : The KeyName of the service, this is often but not always
 the same as the DisplayName shown in Control Panel, Services.
 You can get the KeyName by running: 
 SC GetKeyName DisplayName
 commands:
 query [qryOpt] Show status.
 queryEx [qryOpt] Show extended info - pid, flags.
 GetDisplayName Show the DisplayName.
 GetKeyName Show the Service KeyName.
 EnumDepend Show Dependencies.
 qc Show config - dependencies, full path etc.
 start START a service.
 stop STOP a service
 pause PAUSE a service.
 continue CONTINUE a service.
 create Create a service. (add it to the registry).
 config permanently change the service configuration.
 delete Delete a service (from the registry).
 control Send a control to a service.
 interrogate Send an INTERROGATE control request to a service.
 Qdescription Query the description of a service.
 description Change the description of a service.
 Qfailure Query the actions taken by a service upon failure.
 failure Change the actions taken by a service upon failure.
 sdShow Display a service’s security descriptor using SDDL.
 SdSet Sets a service’s security descriptor using SDDL.
 qryOpt:
 type= driver|service|all
 Query specific types of service.
 state= active|inactive|all
 Query services in a particular state only.
 bufsize= bytes 
 ri= resume_index_number (default=0)
 group= groupname
 Query services in a particular group.
 Misc commands that don’t require a service name:
 SC QueryLock Query the LockStatus for the ServiceManager Database.
 This will show if a service request is running.
 SC Lock Lock the Service Database.
 SC BOOT Values are {ok | bad} Indicates whether to save 
 the last restart configuration as the `last-known-good`
 restart configuration.
 Options
 The CREATE and CONFIG commands allow additional service options to be set
 e.g. to disable a service: SC config "Name of Service" start= disabled
 see the built-in help for more: 'SC create' and 'SC config'

The qryOpt options above are case sensitive, they must be entered in lower case, also the position of spaces and = must be exactly as shown.

Kernel device drivers are not displayed in the Windows Control Panel ➞ Services but can be displayed by SC.

The SC command duplicates some aspects of the NET command but adds the ability to create a service.

Query a Service state

SC query will display if a service is running, giving output like this:

 SERVICE_NAME : messenger
 TYPE : 20 WIN32_SHARE_PROCESS
 STATE : 4 RUNNING
 (STOPPABLE,NOT_PAUSABLE,ACCEPTS_SHUTDOWN)
 WIN32_EXIT_CODE : 0 (0x0)
 SERVICE_EXIT_CODE : 0 (0x0)
 CHECKPOINT : 0x0
 WAIT_HINT : 0x0

To retrieve specific information from SC’s output, pipe into FIND or FindStr
e.g.

 C:\> SC query messenger | FIND "STATE" | FIND "STOPPED"
 C:\> SC query messenger | FIND "STATE" | FIND "RUNNING"

The statements above will return an %ERRORLEVEL% = 1 if the text is not found

IF errorlevel 1 GOTO :my_subroutine

The NET START command can be used in a similar way to check if a service is running:

 NET START | FIND "Service name"> nul
 IF errorlevel 1 ECHO The service is not running

Watch out for extra spaces:
SC QUERY state= all Works
SC QUERY state =all Fails!

Start a Service

Start the schedule service:

SC start schedule

The service control manager will normally wait up to 30 seconds to allow a service to start, you can modify this time (30,000 milliseconds) in the registry

HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control
ServicesPipeTimeout (REG_DWORD)

Some options only take effect at the point when the service is started e.g. the SC config command allows the executable of a service to be changed. When the service next starts up it will run the new executable. Config changes requires the current user to have “permission to configure the service”.

PowerShell

Like every other external command SC can be run under PowerShell instead of CMD, however there is one extra complication for SC and that is the standard PowerShell alias SC which redirects to the Set-Content cmdlet.

To avoid that, use the call operator to run SC.exe from PowerShell:

& sc.exe

Examples

SC GetKeyName "task scheduler"
SC GetDisplayName schedule 
SC start schedule
SC QUERY schedule
SC CONFIG "Schedule" start= disabled
SC QUERY type= driver
SC QUERY state= all |findstr "DISPLAY_NAME STATE" >svc_installed.txt 
SC \\myServer CONFIG myService obj= LocalSystem password= mypassword
SC CONFIG MyService binPath=c:\myprogram.exe obj=".\LocalSystem" password=""

Disable Windows Update (Windows 10)

SC config wuauserv start= disabled
NET stop wuauserv
SC config bits start= disabled
NET stop bits
SC config dosvc start= disabled
NET stop dosvc

To re-enable Windows Update set the 'start=' back to 'auto' and start the services.

Enable remote registry access on computer64:

SC \\computer64 config remoteregistry start= auto
SC \\computer64 start remoteregistry

"There is always room at the top" ~ Daniel Webster

Related commands

DELSRV - Delete a service.
INSTSRV - Install a service (run under a specific account).
NET - manage network resources.
PsService - View and control services.
Svcmon - Monitor services and raise an alert if they stop. (Win 2K ResKit)
SUBINACL - Set service permissions.
WMIC SERVICE - WMI access to services.
Win32_Service class error return codes.
List of Windows Services
Q251192 - Create a Windows Service using SC.
Q166819 - Control Services Remotely.
Q170738 - Debug a Windows Service.
Equivalent PowerShell: Get-Service - Get a list of services / Invoke-CimMethod - start/stop services via CIM.
Equivalent bash command (Linux): nice - Change job scheduling priority.