Service Control Programs

A service control program starts and controls services. It performs the following actions:

• Starts a service or driver service, if the start type is SERVICE_DEMAND_START.
• Sends control requests to a running service.
• Queries the current status of a running service.

These actions require an open handle to the service object. To obtain the handle, the service control program must:

1. Use the OpenSCManager function to obtain a handle to the SCM database on a specified machine.
2. Use the OpenService or CreateService function to obtain a handle to the service object.

For more information, see the following topics:

• Service Startup
• Service Control Requests
• Controlling a Service Using SC