How to Delete a Service in Windows 7, Windows 8, and Windows 10


A service is an application type that runs in the system background without a user interface and is similar to a UNIX daemon process. Services provide core operating system features, such as Web serving, event logging, file serving, printing, cryptography, and error reporting.

Sometimes you may need to delete a service. For example, when installed software doesn't uninstall properly, and leaves its service in the Services list.

This tutorial will show you how to delete a service in Windows 7, Windows 8, and Windows 10.

You must be signed in as an administrator to delete a service.

It is not recommended to delete any default Windows services. Doing so could make Windows very unstable.

Contents

• Option One: To Delete a Service using Command Prompt
• Option Two: To Delete a Service using Registry Editor

OPTION ONE

To Delete a Service using Command Prompt

1 Press the Win + R keys to open Run, type services.msc into Run, and click/tap on OK to open Services.

2 Right click or press and hold on the service (ex: "My Example Service") you want to delete, and click/tap on Properties. (see screenshot below)

3 Make note of the Service name (ex: "Example Service") for this service, and close Services. (see screenshot below)

4 Open an elevated command prompt.

5 Type the command below into the elevated command prompt, and press Enter. (see screenshot below)

sc delete "Service Name"

Substitute Service Name in the command above with the actual service name (ex: "Example Service") from step 3 above.

For example: sc delete "Example Service"

6 When finished, you can close the elevated command prompt.

OPTION TWO

To Delete a Service using Registry Editor

1 Press the Win + R keys to open Run, type services.msc into Run, and click/tap on OK to open Services.

2 Right click or press and hold on the service (ex: "My Example Service") you want to delete, and click/tap on Properties. (see screenshot below)

3 Make note of the Service name (ex: "Example Service") for this service, and close Services. (see screenshot below)

4 Press the Win + R keys to open Run, type regedit into Run, and click/tap on OK to open Registry Editor.

5 Navigate to the registry key below in the left pane of Registry Editor. (see screenshot below step 6)

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services

6 Under the Services key, right click or press and hold on the service name (ex: "Example Service") from step 3 above, and click/tap on Delete. (see screenshot below)

7 Click/tap on Yes to confirm. (see screenshot below)

8 When finished, close Registry Editor.

9 Restart the computer to apply.

That's it,
Shawn

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• How to Start, Stop, Restart, Enable, and Disable Services in Windows 10
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• How to Export List of Running and Stopped Services in Windows
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