How to ease troubleshooting: View running services in command line

Although Windows gives admins the ability to click around and find the information they need, the interface is often frustratingly slow and the information they require is buried beneath layers and layers of property pages and category breakdowns. To combat this, most administrators turn to the command line and its simple and quick commands to retrieve their desired information.

One highly useful slice of information when troubleshooting is the current state of your system's services. But I hate having to dig into Control Panels, the Computer Management mmc or using RunServices.msc to get that information. I'm often already troubleshooting an issue using a command line interface and having to click out of it is a

Digg This!     StumbleUpon     Del.icio.us

RELATED CONTENT Microsoft Systems and Network Troubleshooting Troubleshooting poor Windows logon performance in Active Directory environments Immediate steps for Windows disaster recovery Quick hits: Troubleshooting service account failure, batch job execution Case Study: Troubleshooting Windows service dependency failures Troubleshooting common Windows service failures How can I boot to a floppy and receive a command prompt without being directed to the system drive? RRAS utility in Windows Server 2003 traces network problems Use System Monitor to find bottlenecks in Windows Server 2003 Utility recovers wireless network keys in Windows installation Prevent users from erasing URL history Windows Systems and Network Administration Cutting the cost of Windows identity and access management Using NTFS on a non-Windows OS with NTFS-3G Group Policy Object modeling simplifies network security Implementing simple Network Access Protection for Windows Server 2008 Immediate steps for Windows disaster recovery Tips for Windows domain controller optimization Quick hits: Troubleshooting service account failure, batch job execution Case Study: Troubleshooting Windows service dependency failures Troubleshooting common Windows service failures Reducing the size of network backups in Windows

RELATED RESOURCES 2020software.com, trial software downloads for accounting software, ERP software, CRM software and business software systems Search Bitpipe.com for the latest white papers and business webcasts Whatis.com, the online computer dictionary

nuisance, plus I'm often on a system that is exhibiting GUI performance issues and waiting for another window to open is frustrating.

To view running services from the command line, you need only use the built-in Net utility. You normally use this utility to start, stop, pause and continue services (among other things) but you can also use it to list out all the running services on your computer. Just type: NET START.

The output looks something like this:

C:\>NET START

These Windows services are started:

Application Layer Gateway Service

Automatic Updates

Background Intelligent Transfer Service

About the author: Tim Fenner (MCSE, MCSA: Messaging, Network+ and A+) is a senior systems administrator who oversees a Microsoft Windows, Exchange and Office environment. He is also as an independent consultant who specializes in the design, implementation and management of Windows networks.