StartService

Attempts to place a service into the startup state.

Although there might appear to be no practical difference between a service that is stopped and a service that is paused, the two states appear differently to the SCM. A stopped service is a service that is not running and must go through the entire service start procedure. A paused service, however, is still running but has had its functioning is suspended. Because of this, a paused service does not need to go through the entire service start procedure but needs a different procedure to resume functioning.

You must use the proper method to start a service that has been stopped or to resume a service that has been paused. The Win32_Service methods StartService and ResumeService should be used in the following situations:

If you start a stopped service that depends on another service, then both services are started. When a service is started with this method, any dependent services are not automatically started. You must use the association class Win32_DependentService and the Associators Of query to locate the dependents and start them separately.

The Remotely Enable RDP PowerShell sample remotely enables the Remote Desktop service.

The Stop, Start, Enable or Disable Service PowerShell sample starts, stops, enables, or disables a service.

The following VBSScript code sample demonstrates how to start a specific service from instances of Win32_Service.

The following Perl code sample demonstrates how to start a specific service from instances of Win32_Service.

The following VBScript code example, NetDDE, is dependent on the NetDDEDSDM service. The script locates the class on which NetDDE depends and starts it, which does not automatically start NetDDE.

Example

Do not run below example code just to see what happens next. Many methods seriously affect your system. Always make sure you actually understand what the method and the code do.

$query = 'Select * From Win32_Service where Name="Spooler"'

Invoke-CimMethod -Query $query -MethodName StartService |
  Add-Member -MemberType ScriptProperty -Name ReturnValueFriendly -Passthru -Value {
  switch ([int]$this.ReturnValue)
  {
        0        {'Success'}
        1        {'Not Supported'}
        2        {'Access Denied'}
        3        {'Dependent Services Running'}
        4        {'Invalid Service Control'}
        5        {'Service Cannot Accept Control'}
        6        {'Service Not Active'}
        7        {'Service Request Timeout'}
        8        {'Unknown Failure'}
        9        {'Path Not Found'}
        10       {'Service Already Running'}
        11       {'Service Database Locked'}
        12       {'Service Dependency Deleted'}
        13       {'Service Dependency Failure'}
        14       {'Service Disabled'}
        15       {'Service Logon Failed'}
        16       {'Service Marked For Deletion'}
        17       {'Service No Thread'}
        18       {'Status Circular Dependency'}
        19       {'Status Duplicate Name'}
        20       {'Status Invalid Name'}
        21       {'Status Invalid Parameter'}
        22       {'Status Invalid Service Account'}
        23       {'Status Service Exists'}
        24       {'Service Already Paused'}
        default  {"Unknown Error $_"}
    }
}

To run this method on one or more remote systems, use New-CimSession:

$session = New-CimSession -ComputerName $ComputerName -Credential $Credential

$query = 'Select * From Win32_Service where Name="Spooler"'

Invoke-CimMethod -Query $query -MethodName StartService -CimSession $session |
  Add-Member -MemberType ScriptProperty -Name ReturnValueFriendly -Passthru -Value {
  switch ([int]$this.ReturnValue)
  {
        0        {'Success'}
        1        {'Not Supported'}
        2        {'Access Denied'}
        3        {'Dependent Services Running'}
        4        {'Invalid Service Control'}
        5        {'Service Cannot Accept Control'}
        6        {'Service Not Active'}
        7        {'Service Request Timeout'}
        8        {'Unknown Failure'}
        9        {'Path Not Found'}
        10       {'Service Already Running'}
        11       {'Service Database Locked'}
        12       {'Service Dependency Deleted'}
        13       {'Service Dependency Failure'}
        14       {'Service Disabled'}
        15       {'Service Logon Failed'}
        16       {'Service Marked For Deletion'}
        17       {'Service No Thread'}
        18       {'Status Circular Dependency'}
        19       {'Status Duplicate Name'}
        20       {'Status Invalid Name'}
        21       {'Status Invalid Parameter'}
        22       {'Status Invalid Service Account'}
        23       {'Status Service Exists'}
        24       {'Service Already Paused'}
        default  {"Unknown Error $_"}
    }
}


Remove-CimSession -CimSession $session

Learn more about Invoke-CimMethod and invoking WMI methods.

Syntax

uint32 StartService();

Parameters

The method takes no arguments.

Return Value

Returns a value of type UInt32. Return values:

$returnValues = @{
    0    = 'Success'
    1    = 'Not Supported'
    2    = 'Access Denied'
    3    = 'Dependent Services Running'
    4    = 'Invalid Service Control'
    5    = 'Service Cannot Accept Control'
    6    = 'Service Not Active'
    7    = 'Service Request Timeout'
    8    = 'Unknown Failure'
    9    = 'Path Not Found'
    10   = 'Service Already Running'
    11   = 'Service Database Locked'
    12   = 'Service Dependency Deleted'
    13   = 'Service Dependency Failure'
    14   = 'Service Disabled'
    15   = 'Service Logon Failed'
    16   = 'Service Marked For Deletion'
    17   = 'Service No Thread'
    18   = 'Status Circular Dependency'
    19   = 'Status Duplicate Name'
    20   = 'Status Invalid Name'
    21   = 'Status Invalid Parameter'
    22   = 'Status Invalid Service Account'
    23   = 'Status Service Exists'
    24   = 'Service Already Paused'
}

See Also

Additional methods implemented by Win32_Service:

Change()

Change() modifies a service.

ChangeStartMode()

ChangeStartMode() modifies the start mode of a service.

Create()

Create()

Delete()

Delete() deletes an existing service.

GetSecurityDescriptor()

GetSecurityDescriptor() returns the security descriptor that controls access to the service.

InterrogateService()

InterrogateService() requests that a service update its state to the service manager.

PauseService()

PauseService() attempts to place a service in the paused state.

ResumeService()

ResumeService() attempts to place a service in the resumed state.

SetSecurityDescriptor()

SetSecurityDescriptor() writes an updated version of the security descriptor that controls access to the service.

StopService()

StopService() places a service in the stopped state.

UserControlService()

UserControlService() attempts to send a user-defined control code to a service.

Requirements

To use Win32_Service, the following requirements apply:

PowerShell

Get-CimInstance was introduced with PowerShell Version 3.0, which in turn was introduced on clients with Windows 8 and on servers with Windows Server 2012.

If necessary, update Windows PowerShell to Windows PowerShell 5.1, or install PowerShell 7 side-by-side.

Operating System

Win32_Service was introduced on clients with Windows Vista and on servers with Windows Server 2008.

Namespace

Win32_Service lives in the Namespace Root/CIMV2. This is the default namespace. There is no need to use the -Namespace parameter in Get-CimInstance.

Implementation

Win32_Service is implemented in CIMWin32.dll and defined in CIMWin32.mof. Both files are located in the folder C:\Windows\system32\wbem:

explorer $env:windir\system32\wbem
notepad $env:windir\system32\wbem\CIMWin32.mof