How to remove a service or change the startup type to disabled

[Matt Rapoport]

I'd like to programmatically remove a service or change its startup
type to disabled. I know how to remove it from the command line but
is there another way using the win32 extensions?

I've looked through the win32 help file but when it lists the
arguments for its methods (such as win32service.ChangeServiceConfig)
it doesn't give a dictionary of possible arguments. How can I tell
what int is associated with what Access Type (in OpenService), for
example.

Any help would be appreciated.

Thanks,

Matt

 

[Tim Golden]

I'd like to programmatically remove a service or change its startup
type to disabled. I know how to remove it from the command line but
is there another way using the win32 extensions?

Three answers:

1) The win32service module has a load of constants
for this sort of purpose. Do dir (win32service)
and look for things in capitals. At the moment,
I'll leave anyone else on the list who's had experience
of this to answer specifics.

2) Look at:

http://aspn.activestate.com/ASPN/Cookbook/Python/Recipe/115875

3) Use wmi. Get the wmi module from

http://tgolden.sc.sabren.com/python/wmi.html

and then do something like this:

<code>

import wmi

c = wmi.WMI () # or c = wmi.WMI ("other_computer")
for service in c.Win32_Service (Name="unuseful_service"):
service.ChangeStartMode (StartMode="Automatic")
for service in c.Win32_Service (Name="unwanted_service"):
service.Delete ()

</code>

The loops are just a fudge for the fact the the wmi
query always returns a list, albeit of length one. You
could equally well do:

service = c.Win32_Service (Name="unuseful_service")[0]

although this has the disadvantage (or, possibly, advantage)
of raising an exception if there is no such service.

TJG