pserv.cpl 2.7

pserv.cpl is a Windows NT/2000 Control Panel Applet that

Allows you to control all NT services and devices
Allows you to uninstall applications (new in 2.6)
Allows you to (at least partially) replace eventviewer (new in 2.4)
Allows you to (at least partially) replace task manager (new in 2.4)
Allows you to connect to remote machines
Has many features your Windows 2000 MMC doesn't offer you
IT IS FAST.

I wrote it partly because of being annoyed with that dreaded piece of badly designed crap called Windows 2000 MMC.

Screenshots

Used as a replacement for the services applet: services, devices and properties.
Used as a replacement for the Windows Uninstaller: uninstaller.
Used as a replacement for the Task Manager: processes and modules.
Used as a replacement for the Event Viewer: events.

Other new stuff

Command line switches: MACHINE, DEVICES, APPEVENTS, SYSEVENTS, SECURITYEVENTS, UNINSTALLER, PROCESSES and MODULES. Nuff said

Here is a hopefully instructive example:

...
pserv2 /RESTART Apache2
...
pserv2 /DUMPXML services.xml
pserv2 /DEVICES /DUMPXML devices.xml
...

XML Templates

Starting with 2.2, pserv.cpl has a nice feature that lets you import pserv.xml files and compare them with the current set of services running.

A simple example: You install Windows XP and then manually disable all those "trustworthy" services with funny names like "Background Intelligent Transfer Service" or "Automatic Updates" and other nmap material. HOWEVER, next time you do windows update, there they are up again. Yikes.

But, now you can fight back: disable all services you don't want to have, and save your settings as XML file (menu Templates\Export as XML). Then, when you want to get your settings back, choose Templates\Apply XML template. A dialog will show all changes suggested to your current service configuration.

Download

The current version is 2.7. It is released as freeware with a very liberal, BSD-style license. Source included. Use at own risk. The Download includes an standlone installer. The pserv.cpl history includes links to older versions...

Note: If you are a graphics designer and you have some spare time, please consider if you want to help the progress of pserv.cpl by designing a list of toolbar icons for it. Admittedly, the current set of icons pretty much sucks ;)