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How to delete a ADVERTISEMENT

service in
Windows

MARTIN BRINKMANN Mar 12, 2011

Updated • Oct 11, 2021
Tutorials, Windows, Windows tips | 31
Removing a service in Windows 10 or lower
takes a bit of effort if you have never tweaked
the registry or used the command line before.
It’s not as easy as disabling or stopping an
unwanted service in Task Manager.

Deleting a service requires caution. You don’t SPREAD THE WORD

want to end up removing the wrong file or
registry entries. This is why it is important to
know why they exist. If you are in a hurry, jump
to the solutions below.
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What are Services in

Windows?
Services in the Windows operating system are
background processes that usually require no
user interaction. They are automatically started
with Windows or when a certain event occurs
that triggers them. Most system administrators
distinguish between first-party and third-party
services.

First-party services are installed with the

operating system. They are from Microsoft and
many are core parts of the OS. Disabling a core
service can have serious consequences:
Windows may stop booting, the Internet may
not work anymore, or the printer refuses to
print.

Third-party services, on the other hand, are

added by developers like Google, Apple, or the
company that developed your antivirus
software.

HOT DISCUSSIONS
 Firefox 138 launches with
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and security updates

AdGuard for Linux released with

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OpenAI expands ChatGPT

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These services sometimes cause problems. For ADVERTISEMENT

instance, when they are still listed under

services even if the application has been long
removed from the copy of Windows. Sometimes
malicious software may add services and it may
be necessary to force delete them when your
antivirus software is not able to.

But how can you remove such undesired

services from Windows 10, 8, 7, and lower? The
following guide highlights three different
options: a command-line tool, the Windows
Registry, and a third-party software called
Autoruns.

Method 1 – Deleting
Services Using
Windows Registry
(Easiest)
All services are listed in the Windows Registry. If
a service's Registry key is removed, it will be
deleted from the system. This method is a lot
faster usually. Here is how it is done: RECENTLY UPDATED

Chrome 136 is now available:

Use the hotkey Windows-r to open a run box,
security fixes and APK
enter regedit in the box and press enter. Some
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users may see a UAC prompt that they need to
accept. OpenAI expands ChatGPT
Search with shopping features
The window displays folders on the left side,
Samsung Galaxy A series
and subfolders or parameters on the right.
phones to get a Gemini button
Locate the following Registry key by following
the folder structure on the left. AdGuard for Linux released with
command line support
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentC
ontrolSet\services WhatsApp Web set to launch
voice and video calling features
A click on services lists all available Windows
Google One may soon let you
Services as subfolders of that key. Please note
backup and restore your eSIM
that the service's Service Name is used as the
data
folder name which means that you may need to
open the Services listing once again to identify Elden Ring: Nightreign system
the right services. requirements are similar to the
original game
I suggest you back up the key first before you
start deleting services. Left-click on the services Firefox 138 launches with
folder and select File > Export to backup the improved profile management
key. Type in a file name and save it to the hard and security updates
drive.
Android 16: Advanced
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WINDOWS 11 NEWS Mode has been removed from
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mysterious inetpub folder
MARTIN BRINKMANN

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MARTIN BRINKMANN
 You can import the backed-up key again by
selecting File > Import and the file that you
have previously exported.

WINDOWS

Malware exploits decade old

Windows Services registry (quickest way to
Windows bug, which has an
remove
opt-inservices)
fix
MARTIN BRINKMANN

Locate the service that you want to delete in the

listing. A left-click selects the service and
displays its parameters on the right pane. To
remove a service press delete on the keyboard,
or right-click the service and select delete from
the context menu.

WINDOWS 11 NEWS

Windows 11: Security-feature VBS Enclaves is

being deprecated on some systems
MARTIN BRINKMANN

WINDOWS 11 NEWS

Windows 11: controversial

Recall AI-feature is making a
comeback in latest build
MARTIN BRINKMANN

Deleting service using Windows

Registry
 To summarize this method:

Open the Windows Registry

Navigate to theWINDOWS
key 11 NEWS

Windows 11: Green Screen of

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentC
Death is rolling out, what you
ontrolSet\services
need to know
Backup the services
MARTINkey
BRINKMANN

Identify the service that 11you

WINDOWS want to delete
NEWS

Windows 11: official Maps

Left-click on that service and press delete on
app is dead, but there are
the keyboard options
MARTIN BRINKMANN

Method 2 –
Removing Services
from the Command
Line (Most Efficient)
WINDOWS UPDATES

Microsoft Windows Security Updates for April

2025
Thisare now available
is probably the most complex yet the most
MARTIN BRINKMANN
effective solution. You may need to open an
elevated command prompt first, depending on
the version of Windows. You can try and open
the command line normally with the hotkey
Windows-r, typing cmd, and pressing Enter.

If you face an issue with the command and get

an “access denied” error that you need
administrative privileges you need to click on
the Windows start button, select Programs (or
All Programs), then Accessories. Locate
Command Prompt, right-click the item in the
start menu, and select Run as Administrator
FIREFOXThis may trigger a UAC
from the context menu.
Firefox
prompt under Vista, 138 7,
Windows launches
or 10 thatwith
improved profile
needs to be accepted.
management and security…
The command prompt displays Administrator:
updates
MARTIN BRINKMANN
 MARTIN BRINKMANN
Command Prompt if the operation was
MICROSOFT EDGE
successful.
Dear Microsoft, why cannot I
uninstall
Windows 7 and Vista users Microsoft Edge
who have the on
search
Windows?
box enabled in the start menu can enter cmd
MARTIN BRINKMANN
instead in the box to open the elevated
command promptWINDOWS 11 HELP
with Ctrl-Shift-Enter.
How to bypass the Microsoft
Account requirement during
Windows setup
MARTIN BRINKMANN

Administrator: Command Prompt on

Windows 7

Windows Services are deleted with the

command sc delete followed by the name of
the service. Since it is likely that you do not
know the name you need to open the Windows
Services listing. This is done with the keys
Windows-r, typing services.msc and Enter on
the keyboard.

WINDOWS 11 NEWS

Windows 11 24H2 won't boot if the PC does not

support this CPU feature
MARTIN BRINKMANN

FIREFOX

Firefox 137 rolls out with Tab

Groups, Address Bar Refresh,
and more
MARTIN BRINKMANN

List of Windows Services

WINDOWS 11 NEWS

Copilot for Windows 11 gets

What you need is improved
the servicefile
name, not the
search and
Copilot Vision
 display name thatCopilot
is shownVision
in the main listing.
AGENCIES
The names may be GHACKS
identical sometimes.
Double-click the service that you want to delete
to see both names. Apple Mobile Device is for
instance the service name and display name of
the service. Microsoft on the other hand often
uses short cryptic service names and longer
display names. The Bitlocker Drive Encryption
Service (display name) is listed with the service
name BDESVC.

WINDOWS 11 NEWS

Bug in Windows 11 Update

disables Windows Hello
authentication for some…
users
AGENCIES GHACKS

WINDOWS 11 NEWS

Microsoft confirms
Check Classic
the service Outlook
name before for it
deleting
Windows has a high CPU usage issue
AGENCIES GHACKS
The name may have implications on the
WINDOWS 11 NEWS
command. Let’s say we want to delete the
Microsoft
Apple Mobile Device service,is
a rolling
leftover out Recall
piece
to Windows 11 Copilot+ PCs
after uninstalling iTunes. The command to do
via an optional update
that on the command line is sc delete “Apple
AGENCIES GHACKS
Mobile Device”.

Notice the quotation marks around the service’s

name? A space is generally seen as a new
command or parameter, which means that it is
necessary to use quotation marks if names or
commands make use of spaces to basically tell
 the program that they are all part of a word or
phrase. Take a look at the screenshot below to
see what happens if the command is issued
without quotation marks, and then with.

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apps right in your browser
MARTIN BRINKMANN

INTERNET

How to access Reddit on

Deleting a service without and with
mobile without signing-in or
quotation marks
using the Reddit app
MARTIN BRINKMANN
To summarize: To delete services from the
command line, do the following:

1. Open an elevated command prompt.

2. Open the Windows Services management

listing.
FACEBOOK
3. Identify the service name and not the
How todisplay
block Meta
name AI
by from using your
double-clicking on a
Instagram or Facebook
service.
posts for training
MARTIN BRINKMANN
4. Run the command, make sure you use
quotation marks if the name contains
spaces.

5. The message [SC] DeleteService

SUCCESS indicates that the service has
been successfully removed from the
operating system.

Method 3 – Using
Autoruns Software
to Remove
MICROSOFT OFFICE

Microsoft warns: Office 2016

and 2019 reach end of
 and 2019 reach end of

Windows Services support in October 2025

MARTIN BRINKMANN

(Free, Easy) TUTORIALS

How to remove school

administrator
This method is probably from
the easiest of the three.
Chromebook
All you need to do is to download the free
EMRE ÇITAK
software from Microsoft called Autoruns. The
program is portable which
MUSIC ANDmeans
VIDEO that it does

not need to be installed

The new afterWinamp
unpacking. Run will
Player
launch
autoruns.exe after on April 13, 2023
downloading.
MARTIN BRINKMANN

The program lists everything that gets started

during Windows start. Locate the Services tab
at the top and click it. All 1st- and 3rd-party
services are listed here by default.

You may want to filter out Microsoft services if

you want to delete a third-party service. Click
on Options > Hide Microsoft and Windows
Entries and press F5 afterwards to refresh the
listing.

WINDOWS 10

How to Install MacOS on Windows 10 in a

Virtual Machine
HELENA BOSNJAK
Using Autoruns to easily delete Services on
FIREFOX
Windows 7
All Firefox users are now
protected better against
Locate the serviceonline
that you want to delete and
tracking
select it with a left-click. Press delete on the
MARTIN BRINKMANN

keyboard and confirm the deletion.

Some Windows users may receive an access
denied message. That's when the software is
not run with elevated privileges. Just select Run
as Administrator to restart Autoruns with
administrative privileges and accept the UAC
prompt if it is displayed.

Autoruns needs admin rights to force delete

Services

Perform the removal operation again; this time it

should work. The entry is removed from the
services listing immediately.

Example of a Service being deleted using

Autoruns

To summarize this method:

Download the free software Autoruns from

Microsoft

Switch to the services tabs

Locate the service you want to delete

Left-click the service, press delete and

confirm the deletion
Closing Words
Any one of these three methods should be
enough to delete Services in the Windows
operating system. All three can be executed on
Windows 10 and newer versions too. Autoruns
is, without doubt, the most comfortable
solution. The other two methods are "built-in"
which has its advantages.

In some cases, it may be more efficient to stop

and disable the Service instead of deleting it.
This can be done best via the services.msc
listing.

Read also: How to delete large folders in

Windows super fast

Summary
 Article Name

3 Easy Ways to Remove or

Delete a Service in Windows

Description

Remove a Service in Windows

11/10/7 and lower using 3 easy
ways: cmd command, Windows
registry edit, free Autoruns
software. Click here to learn
how.

Author

Martin Brinkmann

Publisher

Ghacks Technology News

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ABOUT MARTIN BRINKMANN

Martin Brinkmann is a journalist from Germany

who founded Ghacks Technology News Back in
2005. He is passionate about all things tech and
knows the Internet and computers like the back
of his hand. You can follow Martin on Facebook
or Twitter, and read his weekly tech newsletter
on Substack
View all posts by Martin Brinkmann →

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Comments
Anonymous said on June 23, 2024 at
REPLY
5:46 pm

worked exactly as written -windows 11

awesome thx
evolvetek said on November 2, 2022 at
REPLY
6:36 am

thank you for this article, martin, however, i

must echo other commenters here – please
update your instructions regarding the registry
edit method – it DOES NOT remove the service
itself from any windows 10 build i’ve ever seen.
it simply removes the OS’ look-up to the service
for execution. the command line method takes
care of everything.

mcbsys said on October 4, 2022 at 6:31

REPLY
pm

As others have commented, the “delete from

registry” method does not remove the service
from the Services.msc list. There must be some
remnant stored elsewhere. This on Server
2012R2. Maybe it would disappear after a
reboot? Fortunately, the simple “sc delete”
command was still able to remove the broken
service. I suggest removing the registry
instructions from this article, or at least flagging
with “Easy, but does not fully remove service.”

Nwoke Chinedu said on February 13,

REPLY
2022 at 2:16 am

Thanks… The Elevated CMD option worked for

me. It was easy and fast too.

rain said on January 16, 2020 at 10:39

REPLY
pm

omg thanks , that 3rd party software really

saved my ass .
Anonymous said on October 10, 2019 at
REPLY
5:39 pm

unfortunately – on a windows 10 box- deleting

from the Registry doesn’t seem to remove it
from the Services list – what you end up with is
a Service listing and under the Description it
shows

SAS said on May 13, 2019 at 1:46 am REPLY

System.ApplicationException: Unable to stop

service 1061changedstatus False
at #=zRg8a88Uhw2F_yLokXg==.#=zsmc_LcE=
(IntPtr #=zAX2Lw_k=)
at #=zRg8a88Uhw2F_yLokXg==.#=zjeMCP28=
(String #=zm_jz35Y=)
at
#=z7ADAa_R_nPhKWJUOoARzVqA=.#=zuZqtg
ascvNxo()

helppp meeeeeeeee

gitsthebits said on January 5, 2019 at

REPLY
2:28 pm

*Thumbs up*

Marion Bates said on November 1, 2018

REPLY
at 4:21 pm

Thank you for this! Autoruns is great.

hk said on February 2, 2018 at 8:13 am REPLY

I have deleted the file through regedit.But I

could see the service in the services
window.When I am trying to find its properties it
is showing as “Path unspecified”.
I have to remove the service.Please help me
out!.

Niki said on August 31, 2017 at 9:01 am REPLY

Thanks a lot! I used the elevated command

prompt and removed the annoying service
easy-peasy :) Thanks again for that article!

Diego Garcia said on May 13, 2016 at

REPLY
3:08 pm

Thank you so much, this was extremely helpful

for me. I was uninstalling March Networks ESM,
and the service MN Watchdog would refuse to
go away, and the service was corrupt, so it
would not start, so the application didn’t work
correctly. i ran the command, rebooted the
computer, and it was gone for good. When I
reinstalled the software from a different source,
everything worked perfectly! So once again,
thank you so much for this information!

Me said on April 4, 2016 at 12:07 pm REPLY

Thank you very much !!!

Yamanote said on March 21, 2016 at

REPLY
3:29 pm

Before removing the service you should review

the dependencies.

You can check it:

Open services.msc and find the service name,

switch to the “Dependencies” tab.

michael clyde said on March 21,

REPLY
2016 at 4:24 pm

what do you call it when someone states

the obvious¿ Oh yeah, an ephifinized light
bulb.

Sakthi said on May 4, 2015 at 10:14 am REPLY

It’s very useful. Thank you very much.

madhu said on February 2, 2015 at 6:47

REPLY
pm

Hi Martin,

Thanks for the post. :)

Nick said on January 28, 2015 at 2:30 am REPLY

Three different methods to remove services, etc.

that run at Windows boot up. All at one website
instead of needing to search for “how to remove
installed as service” and finding the same old
complicated Registry Editor or “command line”
way to delete it. A while ago I installed a
program that gave the option of having it run at
system startup. It was uninstalled using the
uninstaller, but now I want to try reinstalling it
without getting two entries in the Standard
Services menu. Your easy to understand
instructions did the trick.
August said on November 13, 2013 at
REPLY
1:57 pm

Autoruns then is the way to go. Thanks for

sharing this with us.

Jack said on August 13, 2012 at 4:00 pm REPLY

Your registry hack does not fully cleanup the

service on server 2008. You will still see the
service with “unable to read configuration”
I would recommend the “sc delete” command
as you also mention. This worked fine.

Sameer said on July 7, 2011 at 10:38 am REPLY

I need to hide the Windows Service from the

Service list.
Can anyone please share if they have any idea.

michael clyde said on March 19, 2011 at

REPLY
1:57 am

… short and informative. i like autoruns and the

“highjackfree” that comes inside of the “a2” (a-
squared) anti-malware app. as it shows hidden
services as well as non-hidden.
note: i manually delete everything from the
installed “a2” folder except, the “highjackfree”
executable, just because i don’t like a-squared.
(strange, huh)

Q said on March 12, 2011 at 9:42 pm REPLY

My most used method to remove NT services is

via the Windows Registry (sometimes
automated with command line tools).
There are some things that should be noted:

Windows 2000 does not come with the sc.exe

utility (however, it might have been available
with the Windows 2000 resource kit)

Not all services the are installed with the

operating system are first party. For example,
Windows XP (any service pack level) comes
with a SafeDisc DRM driver that was
controllable as a (hidden) service.

Checking the list generated by services.msc

often does not accurately enumerate all
services; it only enumerates those that are not
set to hidden. To enumerate from all services,
the Windows Registry may be examined.

Martin Brinkmann said on

REPLY
March 13, 2011 at 10:32 am

Q thanks for the additional tips, you are

right of course but I did not want to blow
the article out of proportions.

Tech Crates said on March 12, 2011 at

REPLY
7:03 pm

Very well written…. Found solution to many of

the problems

MartinJB said on March 12, 2011 at 6:42

REPLY
pm

Another great article. Came a day too late –

Yesterday I removed a couple of erroneous
services using Autoruns – made it so easy! :)
Grissino said on March 12, 2011 at 1:19
REPLY
pm

It will be nice a button to print the article in a

“print compatible” way… If there is already one,
I missed it… :-(

Martin Brinkmann said on

REPLY
March 12, 2011 at 2:18 pm

I have added a print button per your

request. You find it below each single
article.

hlm said on March 12, 2011 at 12:40 pm REPLY

Nice article Martin. Any recommendation on

how to check if the services are legit or not
before removing it. For example random named
services created by malware or viruses.

Martin Brinkmann said on

REPLY
March 12, 2011 at 12:52 pm

Well you can look at the path of the

executable for a start, this is done with a
right-click on Properties in autoruns or a
double-click in the services listing. I prefer
to use autoruns because of its option to
hide native Windows services. But you are
usually left with a search on Bing, or
whichever search engine you use, to find
out more about a specific service. And if
you are not sure if you need the service you
can disable and stop it to see what
happens.
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