Force-Removing Windows Services

Question

I am getting the following message while trying to remove a windows service with SC command?

C:\Users\chacha>sc delete service_name
[SC] OpenService FAILED 5:

Access is denied.

I tried to change the properties of Service and retried to remove them but failed. Even I disabled the service and restarted the machine :(

Any idea on forcefully removing a service? What is the reason for this "Locking"?

Answer 1

Try deleting it's entry from regedit at:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE/SYSTEM/CurrentControlSet/Services

Make sure you reboot afterwards.

Also:

• Try removing the service while in safe mode.

Answer 2

You could try using Sysinternals Autoruns program to disable or delete the service.

Answer 3

Did you do that from an elevated command prompt?