[powershell] Get startup type of Windows service using PowerShell

How can I get the Windows service startup type using PowerShell and not using WMI?

I looked inside the Get-Service command, and it does not provide something to display the "startup type".

It is possible with PowerShell 4.

Get-Service *spool* | select name,starttype | ft -AutoSize

screenshot

As far as I know there is no “native” PowerShell way of getting this information. And perhaps it is rather the .NET limitation than PowerShell.

Here is the suggestion to add this functionality to the version next:

https://connect.microsoft.com/PowerShell/feedback/details/424948/i-would-like-to-see-the-property-starttype-added-to-get-services

The WMI workaround is also there, just in case. I use this WMI solution for my tasks and it works.

WMI is the way to do this.

Get-WmiObject -Query "Select StartMode From Win32_Service Where Name='winmgmt'"

Or

Get-WmiObject -Class Win32_Service -Property StartMode -Filter "Name='Winmgmt'"

You can use also:

(Get-Service 'winmgmt').StartType

It returns just the startup type, for example, disabled.

Use:

Get-Service BITS | Select StartType

Or use:

(Get-Service -Name BITS).StartType

Then

Set-Service BITS -StartupType xxx

[PowerShell 5.1]

Once you've upgraded to PowerShell version 5 you can get the startup type.

To check the version of PowerShell you're running, use $PSVersionTable.

The examples below are for the Windows Firewall Service:

For the local system

Get-Service | Select-Object -Property Name,Status,StartType | where-object {$_.Name -eq "MpsSvc"} | Format-Table -auto

For one remote system

Get-Service -ComputerName HOSTNAME_OF_SYSTEM | Select-Object -Property MachineName,Name,Status,StartType | where-object {$_.Name -eq "MpsSvc"} | Format-Table -auto

For multiple systems (must create the systems.txt)

Get-Service -ComputerName (Get-content c:\systems.txt) | Select-Object -Property MachineName,Name,Status,StartType | where-object {$_.Name -eq "MpsSvc"} | Format-Table -auto

In PowerShell you can use the command Set-Service:

Set-Service -Name Winmgmt -StartupType Manual

I haven't found a PowerShell command to view the startup type though. One would assume that the command Get-Service would provide that, but it doesn't seem to.

You can also use the sc tool to set it.

You can also call it from PowerShell and add additional checks if needed. The advantage of this tool vs. PowerShell is that the sc tool can also set the start type to auto delayed.

# Get Service status
$Service = "Wecsvc"
sc.exe qc $Service

# Set Service status
$Service = "Wecsvc"
sc.exe config $Service start= delayed-auto

If you update to PowerShell 5 you can query all of the services on the machine and display Name and StartType and sort it by StartType for easy viewing:

Get-Service |Select-Object -Property Name,StartType |Sort-Object -Property StartType