Technology Notebook

Windows NT/2K::Registry::Service Control

PROBLEM: Gettings stuck starting/stopping services or modifying the service state
A few times I got stuck changing the service "state" (manual/disabled/automatic) or stopping a service. I'm not sure what might cause this to happen, perhaps a dependant service is not stopped first or a prerequisite service is not started yet. But I get left with "stopping" as the status and it never goes away. To work around this for troublshooting I change service state in the registry and restart.
Service entries in the registry:
These are found under HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services
The keys below that roughly correspond to services listed under control panel > services.
The value to change: Start
(The data type is REG_DWORD
The value can be:
0 = Boot
1 = System
2 = Automatic
3 = Manual
4 = Disabled
Drivers will have the Boot & System values. 2,3,4 correspond to the values we set through the normal interface.