Delete a service?

Question

Having problem with uninstalling a program, what I usually do is delet all its files and folders and then manually clean the registry for remains, and then use ccleaner to rectify remaining obselete registry keys. Until today. This time I had a program that won't uninstall. So I did what I usually do. This time the particular program had left behind a background service. I have deleted the registry already. So now this service cannot be started or stopped or managed. It is required to reinstall the program. How to delete this service?

Answer 1

If it still shows up (after a reboot) then you've missed a reference to it in the Registry.

You can try to remove it by using sc delete <servicename> (ensure it's stopped first: sc stop <servicename>).

From sc /?:

delete----------Deletes a service (from the registry).

Answer 2

If using the command line utility "sc" doesn't work (try that first!), you can still remove the service manually.

Open the Services Management Console (services.msc) then right-click the service and choose "Properties." Take note of the "Service name" and "Path to executable." Make sure the service is stopped before proceeding.

Delete the referenced file in the executable path then open the registry. Navigate to the following location then delete the key matching the Service name.
HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\services\

Please proceed with the usual litany of precautions: don't delete operating system files, backup before you delete files or make changes to the registry, don't edit the registry directly...

In addition, you may want to try a registry cleaner, such as CCleaner from Piriform. Please use extra caution when allowing software to clean your registry.