How to uninstall a windows service and delete its files without rebooting

nathan_38657 0
Viewed 115704

My current project involves deploying an upgraded .exe file that runs as a Windows Service. In order to overwrite the existing .exe with the new version, I currently need to:

  1. Stop the service
  2. Uninstall the service
  3. Reboot the system (so Windows releases it's hold on the file)
  4. Deploy the new .exe
  5. Reinstall the service
  6. Start the upgraded service.

I'd like to avoid the reboot, so that this can be a fully scripted/automated upgrade.

Is there any way to avoid rebooting? Maybe a command-line tool that will force Windows to give up it's death grip on the old .exe?

operating-system windows-services filesystems scripting windows
10 Answers
sc delete "service name"

will delete a service. I find that the sc utility is much easier to locate than digging around for installutil. Remember to stop the service if you have not already.

Andrew_163910

Are you not able to stop the service before the update (and restart after the update) using the commands below?

net stop <service name>
net start <service name>

Whenever I'm testing/deploying a service I'm able to upload files without reinstalling as long as the service is stopped. I'm not sure if the issue you are having is different.

Jonathan_S_20340

If in .net ( I'm not sure if it works for all windows services)

  • Stop the service (THis may be why you're having a problem.)
  • InstallUtil -u [name of executable]
  • Installutil -i [name of executable]
  • Start the service again...

Unless I'm changing the service's public interface, I often deploy upgraded versions of my services without even unistalling/reinstalling... ALl I do is stop the service, replace the files and restart the service again...

user_326320

As noted by StingyJack and mcbala, and in reference to comments made by Mike L, my experience is that on a Windows 2000 machine, when uninstalling / reinstalling .Net services, "installutil /u" does require a reboot, even when the service was previously stopped. "sc /delete", on the other hand, does not require a reboot - it deletes the service right away (as long as it is stopped).

I have often wondered, actually, whether there is a good reason "installutil /u" requires a reboot... Is "sc /delete" actually doing something wrong / leaving something hanging?

user_742960

Both Jonathan and Charles are right... you've got to stop the service first, then uninstall/reinstall. Combining their two answers makes the perfect batch file or PowerShell script.

I will make mention of a caution learned the hard way -- Windows 2000 Server (possibly the client OS as well) will require a reboot before the reinstall no matter what. There must be a registry key that is not fully cleared until the box is rebooted. Windows Server 2003, Windows XP and later OS versions do not suffer that pain.

user_120850

(so Windows releases it's hold on the file)

Instead, do Ctrl+Alt+Del right after the Stop of the service and kill the .exe of the service. Than, you can uninstall the service without rebooting. This happened to me in the past and it solves the part that you need to reboot.

Daok_139130

My batch file to stop and delete service

@echo off
title Service Uninstaller
color 0A
set blank=
set service=blank
:start
echo.&echo.&echo.
SET /P service=Enter the name of the service you want to uninstall:  

IF "%service%"=="" (ECHO Nothing is entered
GoTo :start)
cls
echo.&echo.&echo We will delete the service: %service%
ping -n 5 -w 1 127.0.0.1>nul
::net stop %service%
ping -n 2 -w 1 127.0.0.1>nul
sc delete %service%
pause
:end
user_28003850
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