{
  "id": 12949197,
  "title": "How to Manage Windows Services Without Services.msc",
  "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/10/08/how-to-manage-windows-services-without-services-msc",
  "topic": "tech",
  "section": "Tech",
  "published": "2026-10-08T20:40:18.000Z",
  "source": {
    "name": "Dev.to",
    "slug": "dev-to",
    "url": "https://dev.to/donislawdev/how-to-manage-windows-services-without-servicesmsc-5gp4"
  },
  "original_language": "en",
  "account": "Windows Services.msc, a traditional method for managing services, has limitations such as lack of mass actions and force restart/kill options. However, an alternative tool called Better Windows Services offers a more user-friendly approach.\n\nBetter Windows Services provides a graphical user interface (GUI) and command-line interface (CLI) for managing services. With this tool, users can select multiple services and perform mass actions, making it easier to manage various services at once.\n\nOne of the key features of Better Windows Services is its ability to show users a plan of their actions before performing them. This feature is particularly useful when stopping services that may depend on others, as the app will warn users if their action could potentially crash the system.\n\nThe tool also offers a query language in its search bar. For example, users can search for services with automatic startup and a memory usage of 50MB. This allows for more targeted searches and easier identification of specific services.\n\nTo stop a hanging service, users can either use the command prompt (cmd) or Right-click the service in Better Windows Services and select \"force stop.\" The app provides an alternative to the limited options found within Windows Services, such as force restart or force stop.\n\nAdditionally, Better Windows Services provides various other features, including a snapshot function that allows users to export the services list or check for services with missing files. These features enhance the overall functionality and usability of the tool.",
  "summary": "Services.msc are pretty old and they are missing a tons of the information about services, there are no mass actions, no easy force restart/kill. But we can use Better Windows Services if you like the tool, please give it a star :-) The tool is GUI/CLI Mass stop/start and more in Windows Services If we will run the app (with admin rights) we can select multiple services, and do mass actions with…",
  "key_points": [],
  "editors_take": null,
  "illustration": null,
  "coverage": {
    "outlets": 1,
    "also_reported_by": []
  },
  "ai_generated": true,
  "disclaimer": "Summaries, key points and the editor’s take are written by software from other outlets’ reporting and may contain errors — always check the linked original."
}