How to Kill a Windows NT Service that hangs on Starting or Stopping

Date February 14, 2006 Author By kadmin Category Windows Server 2003, Windows XP

1. Go to the command-prompt and query the service (e.g. the SMTP service) by using sc:sc queryex SMTPSvc

2. This will give you the following information:SERVICE_NAME: SMTPSvc
   TYPE               : 20  WIN32_SHARE_PROCESS
   STATE              : 4  RUNNING
   (STOPPABLE, PAUSABLE, ACCEPTS_SHUTDOWN)
   WIN32_EXIT_CODE    : 0  (0x0)
   SERVICE_EXIT_CODE  : 0  (0x0)
   CHECKPOINT         : 0x0
   WAIT_HINT          : 0x0
   PID                : 388
   FLAGS              :

   or something like this (the “state” will mention stopping).

3. Over here you can find the process identifier (PID), so it’s pretty easy to kill the associated process either by using the task manager or by using taskkill:taskkill /PID 388 /F

   where the /F flag is needed to force the process kill (first try without the flag).