SC Delete Not Deleting Service

Question

So I'm running Windows Server 2008 R2 Standard and am trying to delete a service with 'sc delete <myservicesname>' and the command seems to execute without complaint, however, when I check the services list after running the command, the service is still there.

Any ideas?

Brian's answer also helped me out, since I was using powershell, and sc just looked like it did nothing. — Bennie van der Walt, May 28 '20 at 10:58

score 129 · Accepted Answer · edited Dec 20 '19 at 10:50

129

sc in PowerShell is Set-Content; so if you are running in PowerShell, you likely have a file called 'delete' with your service's name as its content

If this is indeed your issue, use

sc.exe delete servicename

edited Dec 20 '19 at 10:50

Phil

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answered May 01 '14 at 15:01

Brian Witt

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Helped me out as well. Thanks – Bennie van der Walt May 28 '20 at 10:57

score 16 · Answer 2 · answered Sep 29 '17 at 13:02

16

Service can be marked for deletion, but may not be deleted immediately, since something holds it. See this answer for possible holders: https://stackoverflow.com/a/20565337/1943849

In my case, I just closed the Computer Management window

answered Sep 29 '17 at 13:02

astef

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Most unexpected fix, there is no indication a service is marked for deletion – too Feb 24 '20 at 13:34

score 1 · Answer 3 · answered Oct 18 '19 at 20:14

1

Make sure to stop the service first then run the sc delete command. It will take care of closing any running process.

answered Oct 18 '19 at 20:14

TNV

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Daikyu · Answer 4 · 2022-10-27T19:36:37.870

You can do something like this in PowerShell, although Remove-Service cmdlet is only available in PowerShell versions 6.0 and up

$SERVICE_NAME

get-service | Where-Object {$_.Name -eq $SERVICE_NAME} | Stop_Service

try{
    if((Get-Host | Select-Object -ExpandProperty Version).Major -ge 6){
        Remove-Service -Name $SERVICE_NAME
    }else{
        sc.exe delete $SERVICE_NAME
    }
}catch{
    Write-Output $_.exception.message
}

You can find the docs for Remove-Service cmdlet HERE

SC Delete Not Deleting Service

4 Answers4