Improper use of this program can be disastrous. SteelWerx is not liable for any damage done due to the (mis)use of its programs. By using these applications, you are accepting all responsibilities associated, and will use them at your own risk.
SC.EXE is a program that is deployed with Microsoft Windows XP to control services from the command line. This way it can be used in batchfiles, called from programs and used in Console Windows. If you want to use it on another Windows platform you are out of luck.
By downloading a huge set of support tools you can get one you can use with Windows 2000, but other platforms are not available.
SteelWerX programmed a version of SC.EXE known as SWSC (SteelWerX Service Controller). But even using SWSC on Windows XP might prove handy, since it also implements a goodie that is not available with the original. So read about the possibilities of SWSC. If something is not possible with the original Microsoft program it is noted in bold.
SWSC is a complete copy of SC.EXE, so it supports the same options. With SWSC you can query the status of a service, or queryex the extended status, start, pause, continue or stop a service. You can send requests to a service with interrogate and control, query and change the configuration with commands like config or qc, you can create and delete services, etc. See the list below for the complete list of possibilities.
Just as with SC you can also send a few commands to the Service Manager, and these are also documented below.
In addition to the sdshow and sdset commands to manipulate the permissions to a service, you can also use the ACL command to view and set these.
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Somehow someone at Microsoft had decided to end switches with the equals sign. In order to comply with their way of doing things I have copied this behavior in all the switches that are "inherited" from the original program. In the implementation of the ACL I did not follow this methodology, instead I chose to implement this the same way it has been implemented in the other programs from SteelWerX. So do not forget them. An example of a valid command line is SWSC query type= service type= interact. Note the equal sign and the space! Also I did not implement the various ways of entering buffersizes. My reasoning behind this is that you want an answer, and not to be told that the buffer is too small! Unless otherwise specified every commandline switch expects a servicename. Otherwise it cannot be executed. |
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| QUERY or QUERYEX | Queries the status for services on the machine. The difference between QUERY and QUERYEX is the return of the extended status. This means that next to the data returned by QUERY you will also get the ProcessID and the Process flags of the service. You can further refine what is enumerated by the use of the following switches (the default is italicized):
If the query command is followed by a service name, the status for that service is returned. Further options do not apply in this case, and will be ignored. |
| START | Starts a service. You can extend the command line with the various parameters that are needed to start the particular service. |
| PAUSE | Pauses a service. |
| INTERROGATE | Interrogates a service. This will result in an refreshed status. |
| CONTINUE | Restarts a service. |
| STOP | Stops a service. |
| CONFIG | Changes the configuration of a service. The following items can be changed with this command:
To change a service's configuration you have to be logged in as an Administrator. |
| DESCRIPTION | Changes the description of a service. To change a service description you will have to be logged in as Administrator. |
| FAILURE | Changes the actions taken by a service upon failure. You will need Administrator access to use this command. Options to set for failure actions are:
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| QC | Queries the configuration information for a service. |
| QDESCRIPTION | Queries the description for a service. |
| QFAILURE | Queries the actions taken by a service upon failure. |
| DELETE | Deletes a service (from the registry). |
| CREATE | Creates a service. To create a service you need to enter the path in binPath= and a servicename. The other possible switches are optional, and can be (the defaults are italicized):
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| CONTROL | Sends a controlcode to a service. Controlcodes are defined by the service itself, consult the service's documentation to find which Controlcodes are available for the service. |
| SDSHOW | Displays a service's Security Descriptor in SDDL (Security Descriptor Definition Language). SC.EXE only shows the Access Control List of the service, but SWSC.EXE shows the complete Security Descriptor. |
| SDSET | Changes a service's Security Descriptor. As the Security Descriptor Definition Language can be quite difficult, search for documentation first or alternatively use the ACL switch. |
| ACL | SWSC ACL ServiceName [[/G user:GUI;Spec/Inh] [/GX:GUI;Spec/Inh] [...]] This command will manipulate the permissions of a service. Since the manipulation of permissions is the same as with files I refer to the documentation of SWXCACLS to find the deeper meaning of the various switches. The differences between these two programs I will explain now.
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| GETDISPLAYNAME | Gets the displayname for a service. |
| GETKEYNAME | Gets the Register key for a service. |
| ENUMDEPEND | Shows the services that depend on this service. |
| BOOT | Indicates whether the last boot should be saved as the LastKnownGoodBoot configuration. In normal use this switch has no meaning, as the LastKnownGoodBoot is automatically set once the computer has started successfully. You have to be a member of the Administrators Group to use set the LastKnownGoodBoot status. This function does not need a servicename. |
| LOCK | Locks the service database. Only Administrators can lock the service database. This function does not need a servicename. |
| QUERYLOCK | Gets the status of the service database's lock. This function does not need a servicename. |
The following assumptions have been made for using these programs!
- These programs will not be used on networked machines to work on another machine. These programs only work on the machine it runs on!
- You know what you are doing. There are no "Are you sure?" prompts or any other form of confirmations asked
Updates:
- (1 june 2012 v: 2.0.0.7): got rid of a bug in parsing permissions
- (12 december 2007 v 2.0.0.6): The Vista check backfired on Vista machines with UAC disabled
- (1 december 2007 v: 2.0.0.5):
- Complete Vista compatibilty check.
- workaround for adding a doublequote(") character on the commmandline.
- (27 february 2007 v 2.0.0.4): Bugfix on 'Stream Read Error'
- (17 february 2007 v 2.0.0.3): Added some extra options to the QUERY and QUERYEX commands
- (26 november 2006 v 2.0.0.1): complete recode of the original version. Extra switch ACL, and outfitted in Unicode
Download address: SWSC
