Xerratus - How to manually delete a Window Service

Tuesday, January 17, 2006

Problem:
While working on a custom Windows Service today I ran into a situation where I couldn't uninstall it (via the .msi, installutil /u, or "add/remove programs"). Countless installing/uninstalling lead to this but I had to get it off so that I could complete the task.

Solution:
Delete the registry key associated with it
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE/SYSTEM/CurrentControlSet/Services/[service name]

Note:
This is and should be used as a "last resort" for removing a service if all of the below options don't work:

InstallUtil /u [service name] fails.
The .msi setup package cannot "remove" it.
"add/remove programs" fails to remove the service as well.

Also, You'll have to reboot for list to update in the Service Control Manager (SCM).

Tuesday, January 17, 2006 @ 02:31 PM (-08:00) Pacific Standard Time

Comments (2)

tags: Programming | Technical

admin: Edit | Remove

Tuesday, January 17, 2006 4:55:24 PM (Pacific Standard Time, UTC-08:00)

Was this a .NET Service?? Have you tried using the InstallUtil ? ie. for a service call MyService

c:>InstallUtil MyService.exe /u

You must make sure that the service is stopped in order for this to work.

chicanito33

Tuesday, January 17, 2006 5:28:15 PM (Pacific Standard Time, UTC-08:00)

That's the problem, InstallUtil isn't working. The registry key deletion method is for when the service is corrupted and InstallUtil isn't working and the uninstall option of the .msi can't uninstall it either.

John McGuinness

Name
E-mail
Home page

	Remember Me
Comment (Some html is allowed: `a@href@title, b, blockquote@cite, em, i, strike, strong, sub, super, u`) where the @ means "attribute." For example, you can use <a href="" title=""> or <blockquote cite="Scott">.
Enter the code shown (prevents robots):
Live Comment Preview