Professional Visual Basic 2012 and .NET 4.5 Programming

Interacting with Windows Services

You can view the services that are used on your computer by opening the Service Control Manager user interface. To do so from the Start menu in Windows 7 or Windows 2008, select Administrative Tools ⇒ Services. If the Administrative Tools menu isn't visible from the Start menu go through the Control panel, select Control Panel ⇒ Administrative Tools ⇒ Services.

Those of you on Windows 8 have two options. The first is to go to the charms bar on the right hand side and select Settings. In the Settings window you will see “Tiles.” Select the Tiles option and you will find a single setting for “Show administrative tools.” Move this option from the default of “No” to “Yes.” At this point your Start screen will repopulate and on the far right side you'll find a new tile for Services.

Alternatively, on Windows 8 you can use the Desktop button that is on the Start screen. From the desktop you can open the Windows File Explorer and look at your Desktop folder. Within the Desktop folder you should see a reference to the Control Panel. Accessing the Control Panel, switch your view to Small icons and then you can select the Administrative Tools folder. A new window will open and you can access the Services dialog. Note that other paths on Windows 8 will also allow you to get here, this is just one such method.

Using the Service Control Manager, a service can be set to automatically start when the system is booted, or it can be started manually. Services can ...