Query Services and Start, Stop, Pause and Continue Services with VBScript

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This set of functions will start and stop services on the local machine or remote machines. These functions utilize the “SC” executable which should be in your local computer’s path variable.

If you want to use these functions to query or manipulate the local computer’s services just pass a period (.) as the computer name string.

The ServiceStatus function will return the service’s current status as a string. Examples of possibilities include “started”, “stopped” and “paused” along with a few others. The ServiceControl function will return “true” or “false” based on whether the command was successful or “error” if the control string that was passed was unsupported.

Function ServiceStatus(sComputer, sService)
  'This script is provided under the Creative Commons license located
  'at http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/2.5/ . It may not
  'be used for commercial purposes with out the expressed written consent
  'of NateRice.com
  Const OpenAsDefault = -2
  Const FailIfNotExist = 0
  Const ForReading = 1

  Set oShell = CreateObject("WScript.Shell")
  Set oFSO = CreateObject("Scripting.FileSystemObject")
  sTemp = oShell.ExpandEnvironmentStrings("%TEMP%")
  sTempFile = sTemp & "\" & oFSO.GetTempName

  oShell.Run "%comspec% /c sc \\" & sComputer & " query " & _
  sService & ">" & sTempFile, 0, True

  Set fFile = oFSO.OpenTextFile(sTempFile, ForReading, FailIfNotExist, OpenAsDefault)
  sResults = fFile.ReadAll
  fFile.Close
  oFSO.DeleteFile (sTempFile)
               
  If InStr(lcase(sResults), "running") Then GetServiceStatus = "running"
  If InStr(lcase(sResults), "stopped") Then GetServiceStatus = "stopped"
  If InStr(lcase(sResults), "paused") Then GetServiceStatus = "paused"
  If InStr(lcase(sResults), "continue_pending") Then _
  GetServiceStatus = "continue_pending"
  If InStr(lcase(sResults), "pause_pending") Then GetServiceStatus = "pause_pending"
  If InStr(lcase(sResults), "start_pending") Then GetServiceStatus = "start_pending"
  If InStr(lcase(sResults), "stop_pending") Then GetServiceStatus = "stop_pending"
  If Not Len(GetServiceStatus) > 0 Then GetServiceStatus = "unknown"

  Set oShell = Nothing
  Set oFSO = Nothing
End Function

Function ServiceControl(sComputer, sService, sCommand)
  'This script is provided under the Creative Commons license located
  'at http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/2.5/ . It may not
  'be used for commercial purposes with out the expressed written consent
  'of NateRice.com
  sCommand = LCase(sCommand)
  If sCommand <> "start" And sCommand <> "stop" _ 
  And sCommand <> "pause" And sCommand <> "continue" Then
    ServiceControl = "Error. Unknown Command."
    Exit Function
  End If
  
  Const OpenAsDefault = -2
  Const FailIfNotExist = 0
  Const ForReading = 1

  Set oShell = CreateObject("WScript.Shell")
  Set oFSO = CreateObject("Scripting.FileSystemObject")
  sTemp = oShell.ExpandEnvironmentStrings("%TEMP%")
  sTempFile = sTemp & "\" & oFSO.GetTempName

  oShell.Run "%comspec% /c sc \\" & sComputer & " " & sCommand & _
  " " & sService & ">" & sTempFile, 0, True

  Set fFile = oFSO.OpenTextFile(sTempFile, ForReading, FailIfNotExist, OpenAsDefault)
  sResults = fFile.ReadAll
  fFile.Close
  oFSO.DeleteFile (sTempFile)

  If InStr(lcase(sResults), "failed") Then
    ServiceControl = False
  Else
    ServiceControl = True
  End If
End Function

 

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