Service Control - SC

Windows comes with a built in function known as the Service Control (sc.exe) which gives the user access to some pretty interesting capabilities and information about services. One can Create, Stop, Start, Query or Delete any Windows service.

First the syntax:

SC [\\server] [command] [service_name] [Options]

Now the commands:

query  [qryOpt]   Show status
queryEx [qryOpt]  Show extended info - pid, flags
GetDisplayName    Show the DisplayName
GetKeyName        Show the ServiceKeyName
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

The output looks something 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

It can be useful from time to time to get some more in-depth information about a service that the administrator panel doesn't provide.