CODEWITHSUNDEEP
windowswindows-services
GenericJon
GenericJon

Reputation: 8986

Modifying the "Path to executable" of a windows service

I'd like to modify the path to my application, but doing so breaks it because the service still points to the old location.

By going to Administrative Tools > Services you can open a properties dialog and view the Path to executable, but there is no way to change it.

Is there any way a user can modify the service path without having to reinstall the application ?

Upvotes: 348

Views: 459479

Answers (13)

Riyad
Riyad

Reputation: 377

Following these steps, you can easily modify the executable path using the UI.

Step 1: Open your Windows Registry Editor. You can either type 'regedit' in the Run program or search for 'regedit' in your start menu.

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Step 2: Expand -> HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE; Expand -> SYSTEM; Expand -> CurrentControlSet; Expand -> Services

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Step 3: Locate the service you want to modify and click on it. On the right-hand side, you will find all the metadata properties for the service, including the ImagePath. Right-click on the ImagePath metadata property, and you can edit the path in the Value data field.

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Thanks

Upvotes: 1

sean
sean

Reputation: 478

If you have Process Hacker installed, you can use it.

enter image description here

Upvotes: 1

last-Programmer
last-Programmer

Reputation: 1019

The best way for this scenario is to uninstall the application and reinstall the application. That is the right legal way.

Upvotes: -9

Bender
Bender

Reputation: 92

i just felt like adding for Git Bash users you should put the path in single quotes ' ' as in

sc config <service name> binPath='<binary path>'

in e.g. sc config MongoDB binPath='"C:\Program Files\MongoDB\Server\5.03\bin\mongod.exe" --config "C:\Program Files\MongoDB\Server\5.03\bin\mongod.cfg" --service --auth'

this worked for me to update the path of the service with Git Bash on Windows 10

Upvotes: 3

Gary Pendlebury
Gary Pendlebury

Reputation: 375

An alternative to using Invoke-WmiMethod is to use the newer CIM cmdlets. This also avoids the need for the @($null,$null...) object, as seen in a previous answer.

Get-CimInstance win32_service -Filter "Name='My Service'" | Invoke-CimMethod -MethodName Change -Arguments @{PathName="C:\Program Files\My Service\NewName.exe"}

Upvotes: 0

John Duskin
John Duskin

Reputation: 357

Slight modification to this @CodeMaker 's answer, for anyone like me who is trying to modify a MongoDB service to use authentication.

When I looked at the "Path to executable" in "Services" the executed line already contained speech marks. So I had to make minor modification to his example.

To be specific.

  1. Type Services in Windows
  2. Find MongoDB (or the service you want to change) and open the service, making sure to stop it.
  3. Make a note of the Service Name (not the display name)
  4. Look up and copy the "Path to executable" and copy it.

For me the path was (note the speech marks)

"C:\Program Files\MongoDB\Server\4.2\bin\mongod.exe" --config "C:\Program Files\MongoDB\Server\4.2\bin\mongod.cfg" --service

In a command line type 

sc config MongoDB binPath= "<Modified string with \" to replace ">"

In my case this was

sc config MongoDB binPath= "\"C:\Program Files\MongoDB\Server\4.2\bin\mongod.exe\" --config \"C:\Program Files\MongoDB\Server\4.2\bin\mongod.cfg\" --service -- auth"

Upvotes: 5

Codemaker2015
Codemaker2015

Reputation: 1

You can't directly edit your path to execute of a service. For that you can use sc command,

SC CONFIG ServiceName binPath= "Path of your file"

Eg:

sc config MongoDB binPath="I:\Programming\MongoDB\MongoDB\bin\mongod.exe --config I:\Programming\MongoDB\MongoDB\bin\mongod.cfg --service"

Upvotes: 4

Antony Joseph
Antony Joseph

Reputation: 111

Open Run(win+R) , type "Regedit.exe" , to open "Registry Editor", go to

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Services

find "Apache2.4" open the folder find the "ImagePath" in the right side, open "ImagePath" under "value Data" put the following path:

"C:\xampp\apache\bin\httpd.exe" -k runservice foe XAMPP for others point to the location where Apache is installed and inside locate the bin folder "C:(Apache installed location)\bin\httpd.exe" -k runservice

Upvotes: 11

Rhak Kahr
Rhak Kahr

Reputation: 770

A little bit deeper with 'SC' command, we are able to extract all 'Services Name' and got all 'QueryServiceConfig' :)

>SC QUERY > "%computername%-services.txt" [enter]

>FIND "SERVICE_NAME: " "%computername%-services.txt" /i > "%computername%-services-name.txt" [enter]

>NOTEPAD2 "%computername%-services-name.txt" [enter]

Do 'small' NOTEPAD2 editing.. Select 'SERVICE_NAME: ', CTRL+H, click 'Replace All' Imagine that we can do 'Replace All' within 'CMD'

Then, continue with 'CMD'..

>FOR /F "DELIMS= SKIP=2" %S IN ('TYPE "%computername%-services-name.txt"') DO @SC QC "%S" >> "%computername%-services-list-config.txt" [enter]

>NOTEPAD2 "%computername%-services-list-config.txt" [enter]

it is 'SERVICES on Our Machine' Raw data is ready for feeding 'future batch file' so the result is look like this below!!!

+ -------------+-------------------------+---------------------------+---------------+--------------------------------------------------+------------------+-----+----------------+--------------+--------------------+
| SERVICE_NAME | TYPE                    | START_TYPE                | ERROR_CONTROL | BINARY_PATH_NAME                                 | LOAD_ORDER_GROUP | TAG | DISPLAY_NAME   | DEPENDENCIES | SERVICE_START_NAME |
+ -------------+-------------------------+---------------------------+---------------+--------------------------------------------------+------------------+-----+----------------+--------------+--------------------+
+ WSearch      | 10  WIN32_OWN_PROCESS   | 2   AUTO_START  (DELAYED) | 1   NORMAL    | C:\Windows\system32\SearchIndexer.exe /Embedding | none             | 0   | Windows Search | RPCSS        | LocalSystem        |
+ wuauserv     | 20  WIN32_SHARE_PROCESS | 2   AUTO_START  (DELAYED) | 1   NORMAL    | C:\Windows\system32\svchost.exe -k netsvcs       | none             | 0   | Windows Update | rpcss        | LocalSystem        |

But, HTML will be pretty easier :D

Any bright ideas for improvement are welcome V^_^

Upvotes: -1

Kim Wilson
Kim Wilson

Reputation: 107

You can delete the service:

sc delete ServiceName

Then recreate the service.

Upvotes: -6

Greg Sansom
Greg Sansom

Reputation: 20830

You could also do it with PowerShell:

Get-WmiObject win32_service -filter "Name='My Service'" `
    | Invoke-WmiMethod -Name Change `
    -ArgumentList @($null,$null,$null,$null,$null, `
    "C:\Program Files (x86)\My Service\NewName.EXE")

Or:

Set-ItemProperty -Path "HKLM:\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\My Service" `
    -Name ImagePath -Value "C:\Program Files (x86)\My Service\NewName.EXE"

Upvotes: 16

Niall Connaughton
Niall Connaughton

Reputation: 16107

There is also this approach seen on SuperUser which uses the sc command line instead of modifying the registry:

sc config <service name> binPath= <binary path>

Note: the space after binPath= is important. You can also query the current configuration using:

sc qc <service name>

This displays output similar to:

[SC] QueryServiceConfig SUCCESS

SERVICE_NAME: ServiceName

    TYPE               : 10  WIN32_OWN_PROCESS
    START_TYPE         : 2   AUTO_START
    ERROR_CONTROL      : 1   NORMAL
    BINARY_PATH_NAME   : C:\Services\ServiceName
    LOAD_ORDER_GROUP   :
    TAG                : 0
    DISPLAY_NAME       : <Display name>
    DEPENDENCIES       :
    SERVICE_START_NAME : user-name@domain-name

Upvotes: 381

Matt McHugh
Matt McHugh

Reputation: 4095

It involves editing the registry, but service information can be found in HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Services. Find the service you want to redirect, locate the ImagePath subkey and change that value.

Upvotes: 345

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