Modifying the "Path to executable" of a windows service

Question

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 ?

score 355 · Accepted Answer · edited Mar 20 '17 at 10:04

355

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

edited Mar 20 '17 at 10:04

Community

1
1

answered Jul 22 '14 at 00:33

Niall Connaughton

15,518
10
52
48

30

I would recommend this approach over direct registry changes. Many paths require quoted strings, which you can enter as follows, for example with MS SQL Server: `sc config mssqlserver binPath= "\"F:\SQL DATA\MSSQL10.MSSQLSERVER\MSSQL\Binn\sqlservr.exe\" -sMSSQLSERVER"` – Marc Durdin Nov 19 '14 at 23:30
2

It's also probably a bit nicer in a deployment script than the direct registry modification approach. – Niall Connaughton Nov 20 '14 at 00:35
Sweet. Cleaner than mucking around in reg. ** Note: You will need to close and open services.msc to see the change. – yonsk Dec 23 '15 at 10:36
1

If you get a `[SC] QueryServiceConfig FAILED 122:` after `sc qc X` use `sc qc X 1000` see [this](http://stackoverflow.com/a/19266092/4047679) – raphael Aug 02 '16 at 15:27
40

If using this from PowerShell, ensure you use `sc.exe`, not a naked `sc` – fiat Oct 23 '17 at 05:23
The `"\"something\""`syntax doesn't work before Windows Vista. – Sandburg Jun 05 '19 at 07:16
@fiat thank you! was wondering why it wasn't working – imsan Feb 09 '23 at 09:39

score 335 · Answer 2 · answered Aug 25 '11 at 12:42

335

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.

answered Aug 25 '11 at 12:42

Matt McHugh

3,995
1
15
8

4

Although finally this leads to registry data, I should mention that there exist special Windows API functions to deal with the service. Direct registry modification should be avoided (because you can't be sure what else Windows is changing when it modifies the path to exe, f.e.) unless you are **absolutely** sure what you do. – lospejos Jul 22 '16 at 20:19
4

@lospejos "I should mention that there exist special Windows API functions to deal with the service" ... which would be? – Nick M Nov 25 '16 at 00:59
2

If someone don't see the service path updated in Services.msc, try killing mmc.exe "taskkill /F /IM mmc.exe" in cmd – Drag0nKn1ght May 18 '18 at 08:44
Windows services never requires you to edit anything in the registry. Using `sc` or `sc.exe` is way better and less risky – Arrcival Jan 18 '22 at 14:07

Greg Sansom · Answer 3 · 2015-08-13T05:18:41.497

15

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"

edited Aug 13 '15 at 05:18

answered Aug 13 '15 at 05:10

Greg Sansom

20,442
6
58
76

score 10 · Answer 4 · answered Aug 01 '18 at 19:37

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

Thanks. this is a clear, detailed and working solution. – syter Sep 17 '22 at 14:06 — syter, Sep 17 '22 at 14:06

score 5 · Answer 5 · answered Nov 22 '19 at 13:10

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.

Type Services in Windows
Find MongoDB (or the service you want to change) and open the service, making sure to stop it.
Make a note of the Service Name (not the display name)
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"

The service I needed to change wasn't MongoDB; it was Redis. But your answer helped me, since I also needed to set some extra properties (`service-run` instead of `config`). — Ernani, Dec 06 '21 at 13:25

score 2 · Answer 6 · answered Aug 14 '18 at 09:30

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"

Bender · Answer 7 · 2022-02-12T06:41:18.103

2

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

edited Feb 12 '22 at 06:41

answered Sep 27 '21 at 16:03

Bender

72
6

Nice one. Worked great. But you have some extra '\' and '"' in your command. So maybe that's why the downvotes. The working syntax would be: 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' – igs013 Feb 11 '22 at 09:03
i edited the command accordingly (although im pretty sure this worked for me the edited command works too) thank you ! – Bender Feb 12 '22 at 06:43

score 1 · Answer 8 · answered May 10 '22 at 07:44

1

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

answered May 10 '22 at 07:44

sean

468
5
10

score 0 · Answer 9 · answered Jan 04 '22 at 15:36

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"}

score -1 · Answer 10 · answered Oct 27 '17 at 14:16

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..

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]

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^_^

Or use `sc` which is much, much easier and less like to screw up. — Liam, Dec 14 '17 at 16:32

score -3 · Answer 11 · answered Mar 29 '22 at 13:50

-3

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

answered Mar 29 '22 at 13:50

last-Programmer

985
3
9
19

score -4 · Answer 12 · edited Sep 19 '16 at 08:44

-4

You can delete the service:

sc delete ServiceName

Then recreate the service.

edited Sep 19 '16 at 08:44

shA.t

16,580
5
54
111

answered Aug 12 '15 at 15:01

Kim Wilson

111
1
11

4

There is no need to do this, there are at least 3 better ways to do this – Liam Dec 14 '17 at 16:32

Modifying the "Path to executable" of a windows service

12 Answers12

Linked