How do I restart a Windows service from a script?

Question

I have a batch script that looks like:

sc stop myservice
sc start myservice

it errors out because sc doesn't wait till the service is stopped. How do I restart a service with a script?

Answer 1

The poster wants to ensure the service is stopped before trying to restart it. You can use a loop on the output of "sc query" doing something like this:

:stop
sc stop myservice

rem cause a ~10 second sleep before checking the service state
ping 127.0.0.1 -n 10 -w 1000 > nul

sc query myservice | find /I "STATE" | find "STOPPED"
if errorlevel 1 goto :stop
goto :start

:start
net start | find /i "My Service">nul && goto :loop
sc start myservice

Answer 2

May be missing something, but I use this all the time:

net stop "myservice"
net start "myservice"

or shorter:

net stop "myservice" && net start "myservice"

Answer 3

Dead simple with powershell:

PS >Restart-Service MySrvcHere

Even better, using display names:

PS >Restart-Service -displayname "My Service Name Here"

Get-Help Restart-Service for more

Answer 4

If it is purely for restarting the service, you can use

Net stop myservice
Net start myservice

However, if you want access to the options of sc, you can use the start /wait command

start /B /WAIT CMD /C "sc stop myservice"
start /B /WAIT CMD /C "sc start myservice"

this technique is a more general solution that can be applied to any command.

Answer 5

If you want to restart a failed service you do not need to run a script. In the services MMC snapin right click on a service, select properties, click the recovery tab. Here you can set what actions you want taken should the service stop. There is alot of flexibility available. You will need a script if y ou are trying to stop the service , do something then start the script, preface the batch file with net stop "myserviceshortname" and end with net start "myserviceshortname"

In vbscipt it's a little more code to stop a service and its' dependants:

strComputer = "."
Set objWMIService = GetObject("winmgmts:" _
    & "{impersonationLevel=impersonate}!\\" & strComputer & "\root\cimv2")
Set colServiceList = objWMIService.ExecQuery("Associators of " _
   & "{Win32_Service.Name='myservice'} Where " _
        & "AssocClass=Win32_DependentService " & "Role=Antecedent" )
For each objService in colServiceList
    objService.StopService()
Next
Wscript.Sleep 20000
Set colServiceList = objWMIService.ExecQuery _
        ("Select * from Win32_Service where Name='myservice'")
For each objService in colServiceList
    errReturn = objService.StopService()
Next

Here's starting a service and anything it depends on (this should be familiar)

strComputer = "."
Set objWMIService = GetObject("winmgmts:" _
    & "{impersonationLevel=impersonate}!\\" & strComputer & "\root\cimv2")
Set colServiceList = objWMIService.ExecQuery _
    ("Select * from Win32_Service where Name='Myservice'")
For each objService in colServiceList
    errReturn = objService.StartService()
Next
Wscript.Sleep 20000
Set colServiceList = objWMIService.ExecQuery("Associators of " _
   & "{Win32_Service.Name='myservice'} Where " _
        & "AssocClass=Win32_DependentService " & "Role=Dependent" )
For each objService in colServiceList
    objService.StartService()
Next

Answer 6

To have quiet restart of some service, which asks confirmations to be stopped (as Server service, for example), You could add /y to the end of stop command.

net stop Server /y
net start Server

It would be helpful for automatic script execution.

Answer 7

If you want to stop service in the remote machine, follow the instruction

Step 1: login to remote machine with know credential like administrator

Step 2: Open command prompt in your computer

Step 3: sc \Remote_Machine_IPAddress stop "Service Name"

Best wishes