Check if a Windows service exists and delete in PowerShell

Question

I am currently writing a deployment script that installs a number of Windows services   The services names are versioned  so I want to delete the prior Windows service version as part of the installs of the new service   How can I best do this in PowerShell

User · Answer

PowerShell Core  v6   now has a Remove-Service cmdlet   I don t know about plans to back-port it to Windows PowerShell  where it is not available as of v5 1   Example     PowerShell  Core  only  v6   Remove-Service someservice   Note that invocation fails if the service doesn t exist  so to only remove it if it currently exists  you could do     PowerShell  Core  only  v6    name    someservice  if  Get-Service  name -ErrorAction Ignore      Remove-Service  name

User · Answer

Combining Dmitri  amp  dcx s answers I made this   function Confirm-WindowsServiceExists  name           if  Get-Service  name -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue                return  true           return  false    function Remove-WindowsServiceIfItExists  name            exists   Confirm-WindowsServiceExists  name     if   exists                    sc exe   server delete  name

User · Answer

For single PC   if  Get-Service  service name  -ErrorAction  SilentlyContinue    Get-WmiObject -Class Win32 Service -filter  Name  service name    delete     else write-host  No service found      Macro for list of PCs    name    service name    list   get-content list txt  foreach   server in  list     if  Get-Service  service name  -computername  server -ErrorAction  SilentlyContinue     Get-WmiObject -Class Win32 Service -filter  Name  service name   -ComputerName  server  delete     else write-host  No service  name found on  server

User · Answer

To delete multiple services in Powershell 5 0  since remove service does not exist in this version  Run the below command  Get-Service -Displayname   ServiceName     ForEach-object  cmd  c  sc delete    Name

User · Answer

More recent versions of PS have Remove-WmiObject  Beware of silent fails for  service delete        PS D   gt   s3 Get-WmiObject -Class Win32 Service -Filter  Name  TSATSvrSvc03    PS D   gt   s3 delete       ReturnValue        2     PS D   gt     True PS D   gt   LASTEXITCODE 0 PS D   gt   result  s3 delete    PS D   gt   result ReturnValue 2  PS D   gt  Remove-WmiObject -InputObject  s3 Remove-WmiObject   Access denied  At line 1 char 1   Remove-WmiObject -InputObject  s3                                           CategoryInfo            InvalidOperation       Remove-WmiObject   ManagementException       FullyQualifiedErrorId   RemoveWMIManagementException Microsoft PowerShell Commands RemoveWmiObject  PS D   gt     For my situation I needed to be running  As Administrator

User · Answer

If you just want to check service existence   if  Get-Service  My Service  -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue         service exists

User · Answer

For PowerShell versions prior to v6  you can do this   Stop-Service  YourServiceName   Get-CimInstance -ClassName Win32 Service -Filter  Name  YourServiceName     Remove-CimInstance  For v6   you can use the Remove-Service cmdlet    Observe that starting in Windows PowerShell 3 0  the cmdlet Get-WmiObject has been superseded by Get-CimInstance

User · Answer

You can use WMI or other tools for this since there is no Remove-Service cmdlet until Powershell 6 0  See Remove-Service doc   For example    service   Get-WmiObject -Class Win32 Service -Filter  Name  servicename    service delete     Or with the sc exe tool   sc exe delete ServiceName   Finally  if you do have access to PowerShell 6 0   Remove-Service -Name ServiceName

User · Answer

Windows Powershell 6 will have Remove-Service cmdlet  As of now the Github release shows PS v6 beta-9  Source  https   docs microsoft com en-us powershell module microsoft powershell management remove-service view powershell-6

User · Answer

I used the  -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue  solution but then later ran into the problem that it leaves an ErrorRecord behind   So here s another solution to just checking if the Service exists using  Get-Service        Determines if a Service exists with a name as defined in  ServiceName    Returns a boolean  True or  False  Function ServiceExists  string   ServiceName         bool   Return    False       If you use just  Get-Service  ServiceName   it will return an error if        the service didn t exist   Trick Get-Service to return an array of        Services  but only if the name exactly matches the  ServiceName          This way you can test if the array is emply      if   Get-Service   ServiceName   -Include  ServiceName              Return    True           Return  Return     bool   thisServiceExists   ServiceExists  A Service Name   thisServiceExists    But ravikanth has the best solution since the Get-WmiObject will not throw an error if the Service didn t exist  So I settled on using   Function ServiceExists  string   ServiceName         bool   Return    False     if   Get-WmiObject -Class Win32 Service -Filter  Name   ServiceName                Return    True           Return  Return     So to offer a more complete solution     Deletes a Service with a name as defined in  ServiceName    Returns a boolean  True or  False    True if the Service didn t exist or was    successfully deleted after execution  Function DeleteService  string   ServiceName         bool   Return    False      Service   Get-WmiObject -Class Win32 Service -Filter  Name   ServiceName        if    Service              Service Delete           if   -Not   ServiceExists  ServiceName                    Return    True                 else            Return    True           Return  Return

User · Answer

One could use Where-Object   if   Get-Service   Where-Object     Name -eq  serviceName   length -eq 1       Service Exists

User · Answer

To check if a Windows service named MySuperServiceVersion1 exists  even when you might not be sure of its exact name  you could employ a wildcard  using a substring like so    if  Get-Service -Name   SuperService   -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue          do something

User · Answer

There s no harm in using the right tool for the job  I find running  from Powershell   sc exe   server delete  MyService     the most reliable method that does not have many dependencies

User · Answer

Adapted this to take an input list of servers  specify a hostname and give some helpful output               name     lt ServiceName gt                servers   Get-content servers txt              function Confirm-WindowsServiceExists  name                                   if  Get-Service -Name  name -Computername  server -ErrorAction Continue                                        Write-Host   name Exists on  server                      return  true                                       Write-Host   name does not exist on  server                      return  false                            function Remove-WindowsServiceIfItExists  name                                    exists   Confirm-WindowsServiceExists  name                 if   exists                                            Write-host  Removing Service  name from  server                      sc exe    server delete  name                                                     ForEach   server in  servers   Remove-WindowsServiceIfItExists  name

[powershell] Check if a Windows service exists and delete in PowerShell

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