ServiceCtl Help

ServiceCtl is a program to start and stop windows services in an easy way. Usually services are being started from a local administrator using Administrative Tools->Services or My Computer->Manage. This is cumbersomely for two reasons:

This is annoying, particular when you often start and stop services. If you are a web developer you tend to restart the IIS or the Apache web server.

ServiceCtl helps you. You run it from the traybar which makes it easily accessible. In lists all the services that you want to control in its context menu. Each service can be started and stopped individual. To make it clear: ServicesCtl needs Administrator rights, too. But it asks for the login data just one time per ServicesCtl start. Each time you start or stop a service ServiceCtl impersonates using the login data and returns to the current user, as soon as the service is running/stopped.

Properties

ServiceCtl has these characteristics:

Requirements

ServiceCtl needs

Configuration

Start ServiceCtl by executing ServiceCtl.exe. ServiceCtl turns up in the traybar (Screenshot 1).

Screenshot 1

A right click on the icon opens the context menu (Screenshot 2).

Screenshot 2

Click the settings menu item and the Settings dialog opens (Screenshot 3).

Screenshot 3

Select the services you want to control from the list of available services and add them to the list of controlled services using the "->" button or a double click on the selected service. By using the "<-" button or a double click on a controlled service you remove a service from the list of the controlled services (Screenshot 4).

Screenshot 4

For every service that you add to the list of the controlled services a menu item appears in the context menu of ServiceCtl. This menu item is being used to start and stop the particular service (Screenshot 5).

Screenshot 5

Usage

Open ServicesCtl's context menu with a right-click on its icon in the traybar (Screenshot 1). For every service that you added to the list of the controlled services, a menu item appears in the context menu (Screenshot 1). Each of these menu items has a sub menu for starting/stopping this service. If the service is already running, the menu item for starting the service is deactivated. If the service is stopped, the menu item for stopping the service is deactivated (Screenshot 6).

Screenshot 6

As soon as you attempt to start or stop a service the account of the current user is checked for the membership to the administrator group. If the current user is not member of the administrator group, a dialog for entering the account data of a member of the administrator group opens (Screenshot 7). If this account is not a member of a domain, than let the domain input control empty. After entering the account data ServiceCtl tries to login using these data. If this was successful, the service will be started/stopped. You need to enter the account data once per ServicesCtl session, because the password in not being saved (for security reasons).

Screenshot 7

License

ServicesCtl is licensed under the GPL. Please read the licence. A good source for the understanding of this license can be found at Wikipedia. The important points are (in my opinion and without legal advice):

Acknowledgement

I want to thank:

Contact

If you have questions or want to contact me use the email servicesctl@olaf-groeger.de.