I'm still amazed that so many up-and-coming admins and SE's knee-jerk to using a script to perform a task that is readily available from a command prompt. In this case, the SC command. The SC.exe command resides in the %WINDIR%\System32 folder on most Windows XP, Vista and Windows 7 systems (as well as Windows Server 2003, 2008 and 2008 R2). It's also alive an well on Windows 8 (Dev Preview build, anyway), and I presume resting within Windows Server 8 as well (I haven't seen it yet).
The syntax is rather basic:
sc <server> <option> <parameters>
but most people use it for querying the local services state, as follows:
sc query
The flexibility comes with the "<server>" argument, which is the NetBIOS computer name (with preceeding \\), so to query a remote computer named DESKTOP1 over your network...
sc \\DESKTOP1 query
And just add a piped "| more" to pause screen-by-screen (or redirect into a file, etc.)
One short and simple command, instead of a bunch of VBScript or even a lengthy Powershell cmdlet. Nothing wrong with those options, but it's nice to know there are other alternatives.
Remember: To break open this little nugget, open a CMD console and type "sc /?", press Enter and enjoy!
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