How do I uninstall a Windows service if the files do not exist anymore

Question

How do I uninstall a  NET Windows Service  if the service files does not exists anymore   I installed a  NET Windows Service using InstallUtil  I have since deleted the files but forgot to run   InstallUtil  u   first  So the service is still listed in the Services MMC   Do I have to go into the registry  Or is there a better way

User · Accepted Answer

You have at least three options  I have presented them in order of usage preference   Method 1 -  You can use the SC tool  Sc exe  included in the Resource Kit    included with Windows 7 8   Open a Command Prompt and enter  sc delete  lt service-name gt    Tool help snippet follows   DESCRIPTION          SC is a command line program used for communicating with the         NT Service Controller and services   delete----------Deletes a service  from the registry     Method 2 - use delserv  Download and use delserv command line utility  This is a legacy tool developed for Windows 2000  In current Window XP boxes this was superseded by sc described in method 1   Method 3 - manually delete registry entries  Note that this backfires in Windows 7 8   Windows services are registered under the following registry key   HKEY LOCAL MACHINE SYSTEM CurrentControlSet Services   Search for the sub-key with the service name under referred key and delete it   and you might need to restart to remove completely the service from the Services list

User · Answer

From the command prompt  use the Windows  sc exe  utility   You will run something like this   sc delete  lt service-name gt

User · Answer

You can uninstall your windows service by command prompt also just write this piece of command  cd                                                                      cd C  Windows Microsoft NET Framework v4 0 30319 or version in which you developed your service                                              installutil c   xxx exe physical path of your service  -d

User · Answer

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   Run Regedit or Regedt32  Go to the registry entry  quot HKEY LOCAL MACHINE SYSTEM CurrentControlSet Services quot   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  quot MorganTechService quot  binpath   quot C  Program Files MorganTechSPace myservice exe quot  Note  You may have to reboot the system to get the list updated in service manager

User · Answer

From the command prompt  use the Windows  sc exe  utility   You will run something like this   sc delete  lt service-name gt

User · Answer

Some people mentioning sc delete as an answer  This is how I did it  but it took me a while to find the  lt service-name gt  parameter   The command sc query type  service  note  it s very particular with formatting  the space before  service  is necessary  will output a list of Windows services installed  complete with their qualified name to be used with sc delete  lt service-name gt  command   The list is quite long so you may consider piping the output to a text file  i e   gt  gt  C  test txt  and then searching through that   The SERVICE NAME is the one to use with sc delete  lt service-name gt  command

User · Answer

The easiest way is to use Sys Internals Autoruns  Start it in admin mode and then you can remove obsolete services by delete key

User · Answer

1st Step   Move to the Directory where your service is present   Command   cd c  xxx yyy service  2nd Step   Enter the below command   Command   C  Windows Microsoft NET Framework v4 0 30319 InstallUtil exe service exe  u  Here service exe is your service exe and  u will uninstall the service   you ll see  The uninstall has completed  message   If you wanna install a service  Remove  u in the above command which will install your service

User · Answer

If the original Service  InstallLog and  InstallState files are still in the folder  you can try reinstalling the executable to replace the files  then use InstallUtil  u  then uninstall the program   It s a bit convoluted  but worked in a particular instance for me

User · Answer

The easiest way is to use Sys Internals Autoruns  Start it in admin mode and then you can remove obsolete services by delete key

User · Answer

-Windows r open cmd   -sc YourSeviceName this code remove your service   -Uninstal  YourService Path  this code uninstall your service

User · Answer

I needed to reinstall my tomcat service  which meant first removing it   This worked for me   Start a command prompt window using run as administrator  sc query type  service  gt t txt    edit the file t txt  search through the list and find the tomcat service   It s called Tomcat7   sc delete Tomcat7   HOWEVER  the query command did not work the first time  because the tomcat service was not running   It seems to only list services that are running   I had to start the service and run the query command again

User · Answer

Notes on using  sc delete  in Windows 8     1  Open a CMD window with elevated privileges    Windows Key-X to bring up a menu with the option  select  Command Prompt  Admin     2  Use the parenthetical name from the list in Services  for example  I used  sc delete gupdate  when  in Services  it read  Google Update  gupdate

User · Answer

From the command prompt  use the Windows  sc exe  utility   You will run something like this   sc delete  lt service-name gt

User · Answer

Some people mentioning sc delete as an answer  This is how I did it  but it took me a while to find the  lt service-name gt  parameter   The command sc query type  service  note  it s very particular with formatting  the space before  service  is necessary  will output a list of Windows services installed  complete with their qualified name to be used with sc delete  lt service-name gt  command   The list is quite long so you may consider piping the output to a text file  i e   gt  gt  C  test txt  and then searching through that   The SERVICE NAME is the one to use with sc delete  lt service-name gt  command

User · Answer

I needed to reinstall my tomcat service  which meant first removing it   This worked for me   Start a command prompt window using run as administrator  sc query type  service  gt t txt    edit the file t txt  search through the list and find the tomcat service   It s called Tomcat7   sc delete Tomcat7   HOWEVER  the query command did not work the first time  because the tomcat service was not running   It seems to only list services that are running   I had to start the service and run the query command again

User · Answer

If you wish to use a tool for it you could use Process Hacker  Form to create the service     Context menu on a service to delete it     I find Process Hacker a more convient tool to manage Windows processes and services than Windows s own Taskmgr exe  Especially on Windows XP  where you can t access services at all from task manager

User · Answer

Notes on using  sc delete  in Windows 8     1  Open a CMD window with elevated privileges    Windows Key-X to bring up a menu with the option  select  Command Prompt  Admin     2  Use the parenthetical name from the list in Services  for example  I used  sc delete gupdate  when  in Services  it read  Google Update  gupdate

User · Answer

1st Step   Move to the Directory where your service is present   Command   cd c  xxx yyy service  2nd Step   Enter the below command   Command   C  Windows Microsoft NET Framework v4 0 30319 InstallUtil exe service exe  u  Here service exe is your service exe and  u will uninstall the service   you ll see  The uninstall has completed  message   If you wanna install a service  Remove  u in the above command which will install your service

User · Answer

If you wish to use a tool for it you could use Process Hacker  Form to create the service     Context menu on a service to delete it     I find Process Hacker a more convient tool to manage Windows processes and services than Windows s own Taskmgr exe  Especially on Windows XP  where you can t access services at all from task manager

User · Answer

We discovered that even if you run sc delete  there can be an entry remaining in the registry for your service  so that reinstalling the service results in a corrupted set of registry entries  they don t match   What we did was to regedit and remove this leftover entry by hand    Note  ShipmunkService is still showing up after sc delete   Then you can reinstall  and your service will run correctly  Best of luck to you all  and may the force be with you

User · Answer

From the command prompt  use the Windows  sc exe  utility   You will run something like this   sc delete  lt service-name gt

User · Answer

You can try running Autoruns  which would save you from having to edit the registry by hand  This is especially useful when you don t have the needed permissions

User · Answer

-Windows r open cmd   -sc YourSeviceName this code remove your service   -Uninstal  YourService Path  this code uninstall your service

User · Answer

If the original Service  InstallLog and  InstallState files are still in the folder  you can try reinstalling the executable to replace the files  then use InstallUtil  u  then uninstall the program   It s a bit convoluted  but worked in a particular instance for me

User · Answer

You can uninstall your windows service by command prompt also just write this piece of command  cd                                                                      cd C  Windows Microsoft NET Framework v4 0 30319 or version in which you developed your service                                              installutil c   xxx exe physical path of your service  -d

User · Answer

You can try running Autoruns  which would save you from having to edit the registry by hand  This is especially useful when you don t have the needed permissions

User · Answer

We discovered that even if you run sc delete  there can be an entry remaining in the registry for your service  so that reinstalling the service results in a corrupted set of registry entries  they don t match   What we did was to regedit and remove this leftover entry by hand    Note  ShipmunkService is still showing up after sc delete   Then you can reinstall  and your service will run correctly  Best of luck to you all  and may the force be with you

User · Answer

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   Run Regedit or Regedt32  Go to the registry entry  quot HKEY LOCAL MACHINE SYSTEM CurrentControlSet Services quot   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  quot MorganTechService quot  binpath   quot C  Program Files MorganTechSPace myservice exe quot  Note  You may have to reboot the system to get the list updated in service manager

[windows] How do I uninstall a Windows service if the files do not exist anymore?

Examples related to windows

Examples related to windows-services

Examples related to installation