Powershell
Processes And Services

Working with Processes and Services in PowerShell

Managing Running Processes

PowerShell allows you to manage running processes on your system using various cmdlets. The main cmdlets for working with processes are:

  • Get-Process: Retrieves information about running processes on the system.
  • Start-Process: Starts a new process, such as launching an application.
  • Stop-Process: Stops one or more running processes by specifying their names or process IDs.
  • Wait-Process: Waits for a process to complete before proceeding with the script.

Here are some examples of using these cmdlets:

# Get information about all running processes
Get-Process
 
# Get information about a specific process (e.g., Notepad)
Get-Process -Name notepad
 
# Start a new process (e.g., open Notepad)
Start-Process notepad
 
# Stop a process by name (e.g., stop Notepad)
Stop-Process -Name notepad
 
# Stop a process by process ID (e.g., stop a process with ID 1234)
Stop-Process -Id 1234
 
# Wait for a process to complete before continuing the script
Start-Process notepad -Wait

Starting, Stopping, and Restarting Services

PowerShell provides cmdlets to manage services on your system. The main cmdlets for working with services are:

  • Get-Service: Retrieves information about services on the system.
  • Start-Service: Starts a stopped service.
  • Stop-Service: Stops a running service.
  • Restart-Service: Restarts a running service.
  • Set-Service: Changes the configuration of a service, such as its startup type.

Here are some examples of using these cmdlets:

# Get information about all services
Get-Service
 
# Get information about a specific service (e.g., Print Spooler)
Get-Service -Name Spooler
 
# Start a service (e.g., start the Print Spooler service)
Start-Service -Name Spooler
 
# Stop a service (e.g., stop the Print Spooler service)
Stop-Service -Name Spooler
 
# Restart a service (e.g., restart the Print Spooler service)
Restart-Service -Name Spooler
 
# Set the startup type of a service to Automatic
Set-Service -Name Spooler -StartupType Automatic

Service Control with Administrative Privileges

Some service-related operations, such as starting or stopping certain services, require administrative privileges. To run PowerShell cmdlets with administrative rights, you need to open an elevated PowerShell console or run the PowerShell session as an administrator.

To do this, right-click on the PowerShell application and choose "Run as administrator." You may be prompted to provide administrator credentials.

Caution: Be careful when working with services, especially when stopping or restarting them. Stopping critical services can have adverse effects on your system's stability and functionality.

Using PowerShell to manage processes and services provides a powerful way to control your system's behavior and automate various tasks. Always exercise caution and ensure you have appropriate permissions when performing operations that involve processes and services.

Files And FoldersPowerShell Providers