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

Posted By: Thomas Jespersen

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?

Solution

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 <service-name>

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 In current Window XP boxes this was superseded by sc described in method 1.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_MACHINESYSTEMCurrentControlSetServices

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)

Answered By: smink

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