Set-Service

Understanding the Power of Set-Service in PowerShell

Welcome back to Wahmans Powershell Blog! Today, we’re diving into a versatile cmdlet in PowerShell: Set-Service. According to Microsoft, this cmdlet “Starts, stops, and suspends a service, and changes its properties.” Whether you’re just getting started with PowerShell or you’re automating complex service configurations in large environments, Set-Service provides a simple interface to manage Windows services programmatically.

Use Case #1: Change the Startup Type of a Service (Beginner)

Say you want to change the startup type of the Windows Update service (wuauserv) to “Manual”:

Set-Service -Name wuauserv -StartupType Manual

This command ensures the service does not start automatically when the system boots, but it can still be started manually when needed.

Use Case #2: Stop a Running Service (Intermediate)

If a service is running and needs to be stopped (for example before an update), you can use:

Set-Service -Name Spooler -Status Stopped

This stops the Print Spooler service. Make sure you have the necessary permissions to stop the service.

Use Case #3: Disable a Service to Prevent It from Starting (Advanced)

To disable a service like Remote Registry for security purposes:

Set-Service -Name RemoteRegistry -StartupType Disabled

This prevents the service from starting either automatically or manually unless explicitly enabled again.

Use Case #4: Combine with Get-Service for Bulk Modification (Advanced)

Let’s say you want to disable all services that start with “Xbl” (Xbox-related services that might not be needed on enterprise systems):

Get-Service -Name Xbl* | ForEach-Object { Set-Service -Name $_.Name -StartupType Disabled }

This allows you to automate configuration changes across multiple services efficiently.

As with all scripts that modify system services, make sure to test in a safe environment before rolling changes into production environments.

That’s it for today’s dive into the Set-Service cmdlet. Happy scripting, and I will see you in the next post!