Windows Vista How do I delete a service in Vista?

Hi all. I uninstalled Windows Live Messenger from my computer and replaced it with Xfire. I removed all of the leftovers of windows messenger and windows live installer from my computer except for one thing. I looked in Services and I have the Windows live setup service listed. Since I removed windows live installer and messenger from my system this service is not needed. I have already set the service to disabled but I would like to remove this service from the service list entirely.

Also under the exceptions in windows firewall Windows messenger is listed. I tried to remove Windows messenger from the exceptions list but the delete button is grayed out.

So I would like to know how to remove Windows Live Setup Service from the Service list and I want to remove Windows Messenger from the excpetions list under the Windows Firewall. If someone could help me out I would appreciate it.

 

To delete service, open Command Prompt, and type in:
sc delete service_name
Hit Enter.

 

Hey Broni. Unfortunetly when I typed sc delete windows_live_setup_service in command prompt I got [SC] OpenService FAILED 1060: The specified service does not exist as an installed service.

Based on that messege the service doesn't seem to exist. But if it doesn't exist then why is it still shwing up in the services list.

 

Evan

I am curious - and not a Vista user ....

Would be interested to learn why you want to remove a service which is disabled and thus will not run anyway.

 

It's most likely some empty registry key.
Check the keys listed below:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Enum\Root\
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\ControlSet001\Enum\Root\
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\ControlSet001\Services\
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\ControlSet003\Enum\Root\
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\ControlSet003\Services

 

Hey Pete and broni. I was able to delete the service by going to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\ and looking for the windows live setup service. Once I found it I removed it and rebooted. Upon cheecking the services list it was gone. To answer your question Pete, I like to keep my system organized and free from junk so when I see files and lefover services from applications that I uninstalled I want to delete all of the remnants of a program. I realize that there is no benefit with deleting a leftover service thats already disabled of a program thats been uninstalled but the fact that it was just "there" bugged me so I wanted to delete it from the list.

So now that I removed the windows live setup service I would like to remove windows messenger from the exception list in windows firewall. I have tried googling my problem to no avail and the delete button for windows messenger is grayed out. How can I delete the leftover windows messenger entries?

 

Make sure, that under General tab in Windows Firewall, "Don't allow exceptions" is unchecked.

 

I have that checkbox unchecked. Do you know what the path is in the registry where the firewall exception list is kept?

 

I don't use Windows firewall, but try digging around this folder:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE \ SYSTEM \ CurrentControlSet \ Services \ SharedAccess \ Parameters \ FirewallPolicy
most likely:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE \ SYSTEM \ CurrentControlSet \ Services \ SharedAccess \ Parameters \ FirewallPolicy \ FirewallRules

 

Hey Broni. I was able to delete the entries from the windows firewall exceptions tab by going into administrative tools and clicking on Windows Firewall with advanced security. I then clicked on inbound connections and I found all of the Windows Messenger entries. After I deleted them from there I checked the firewall exceptions tab and they were gone. I appreciate your help broni, thanks

 

Sure thing