A service is an application type that runs in the system background without a user interface and is similar to a UNIX daemon process. Services provide core operating system features, such as Web serving, event logging, file serving, printing, cryptography, and error reporting.

You can perform the following actions for services on local and remote computers (the remote computers must be running Microsoft Windows NT 4.0, Windows 2000, Windows XP, Windows Server 2003, Windows Vista, Windows Server 2008, Windows® 7, or Windows Server® 2008 R2):

• Start, stop, pause, resume, or disable services.
  
  
• Set up recovery actions to take place if a service fails — for example, restarting the service automatically or restarting the computer.
  
  
• Run services in the security context of a user account that is different from the logged-on user or the default computer account.
  
  
• Enable or disable services for a particular hardware profile.
  
  
• Export and save service information to a .txt or .csv file.
  
  
• View the status and description of each service.
  
  
• View the service dependencies.
  
  

To start the Services snap-in

• Click Start, in the Start Search box, type services.msc, and then press Enter.

  	Note
  	Membership in the local Administrators group, or equivalent, is required to use the Services snap-in.

Additional references

• Set up Recovery Actions to Take Place When a Service Fails
  
  
• Configure How a Service Is Started
  
  
• Use Hardware Profiles to Troubleshoot Services
  
  
• For more information about troubleshooting service events and errors, see http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?linkid=68107.
  
  
• For information about developing and using services, see http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=88931.