A Windows Service is an application that starts when the Microsoft Windows operating system is booted and runs in the background as long as Windows is running. It is very similar in concept to a Unix daemon. By default Windows services are run under the virtual user “LocalService” that has administrative rights on the system. LocalService is not a real user and also has no access to network file shares and similar resources.

Some spyware installs autorun entries in Windows Services. So it’s important that you know what’s Windows Services and how to access it. You can view the services installed on your Windows computer by launching “Services” from the Windows Control Panel, Administrative Tools.
Remove Spyware from Services
You’ll see a long list of Name, Description, Status, Startup Type and Log On As information. The problem with Windows Services is that its difficult for the user to distinguish between legitimate and non-legitimate services. Also information about the service is not displayed at single place.

Here’s a free tool that makes it easy for user to identify non-legitimate services by displaying additional information such as binary path, company information at one place.

WinServiceManager provides single point of administration for managing various aspects of windows services. It has got more features and provides better management functionality than built-in windows service management console. It shows list of non-legitimate services which allows the administrator to quickly identify and remove the additional services, most of these are installed by spyware to monitor the user activities.

This is very simple tool which does not require any installation. It is portable and you can run the executable from anywhere. On launching this application you will see the screen as shown in the above picture. By default it displays only non-windows services. To see all the services, click on “Show Windows services also” at the bottom-left side of the screen. For each service, it displays following information

  • Service Name
  • Description
  • Current Status of Service
  • Full path of binary file
  • Company Name

    • Anytime you can start, stop or disable any service by selecting it and clicking on the appropriate button below. Also you can reload the service list by clicking on “Refresh” button. I’d say that this is one of the best FREE tool for managing Services in Windows.

    [ Download WinServiceManager ]

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