If you are a fan of tweaking your system and disabling services, you might detect that over fourth dimension your Windows Services list becomes big and unwieldy. Information technology's easy enough to delete a Windows service using the Command Prompt.

RELATED: Should Yous Disable Windows Services to Speed Upwards Your PC?

A big alert, though. When you delete a service, it's gone—and services can be a real pain to go back. We actually don't recommend deleting services at all, unless you lot're dealing with a very particular situation like cleaning up after a program uninstalled improperly or rooting out a malware infestation. Typically, just disabling a service is plenty, especially if all y'all're really trying to do is tweak your organization performance (which probably won't piece of work likewise as you might hope, anyway).  That said, if yous exercise demand to delete a service, you just need to detect the actual name of that service and so issue a unmarried command from the Command Prompt.

The techniques we're covering here should piece of work in pretty much any version of Windows—from XP all the mode up through ten.

Step One: Observe the Name of the Service Yous Want to Delete

The first matter you'll need to exercise is identify the full name of the service you lot desire to delete. In our example, we're using the RetailDemo service—a curious matter that activates a subconscious command for changing Windows into a retail service fashion (and pretty much erasing all personal docs and resetting your PC to it's default state), so it's actually a proficient example of a service you might not want around.

Hit First, blazon "services" into the search box, and then click the "Services" result.

In the "Services" window, scroll down and find the service you're later. Right-click the service and choose the "Properties" command.

In the service'south backdrop window, re-create (or write downwardly) the text to the right of the "Service name" entry.

When y'all accept the service's proper noun, you can get ahead and shut the properties window and the "Services" window.

Step Two: Delete the Service

Now that you accept the name of the service you lot desire to delete, you'll need to open the Control Prompt with administrative privileges to do the deleting.

Click Start, and then blazon "cmd" into the search box. Right-click the "Command Prompt" effect, and and then choose the "Run as administrator" command.

At the Command Prompt, yous'll use the following syntax:

sc delete                ServiceName              

And so, to delete the "RetailDemo" service we're using in our instance, we'd blazon the post-obit text, and and then hit Enter:

sc delete RetailDemo

Note: If the service yous're deleting has any spaces in the proper name, you'll have to enclose the name in quotes when you lot blazon the control.

Now, if you use the F5 key to refresh your Services list, you'll meet that the service is gone.


Deleting a service in Windows is pretty easy, but we'd again like to circumspection you to think long and hard earlier deleting a service, considering it's very difficult to go them back in one case they're gone.