Remove Service From Registry

Remove a system service from the Windows Registry

Do you have a system service on your Windows PC that is running in the background and you would like to remove it from your system? Or have a failing service you do not need and want to remove it so you no longer have an error in your Event Viewer logs?

You can easily remove services from your system using the registry.

If you know the name of the service you want to remove it will make removing it from the registry much easier. If you do not, it can make it a lot more difficult to find because there are typically a lot of services installed by default.

Remove System Service By Name

Before making any changes to your registry, you should always backup first!

After you have created a backup (you can view other articles on this site for registry backup how-to’s), open regedit.exe (type “regedit” from a command prompt or the Run menu) and navigate to the following registry key:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Services

In this registry key, all installed services on your PC are listed. If you know the name of the service you want to remove, you can find the name of the service in the left pane and right-click and click delete.

That’s it! Just reboot your PC and the service will no longer start or being listed in the Services Console (services.msc).

If you do not know the exact name of the service, you will need to look at each service one-by-one to determine which one is the one you are looking for. Be careful not to delete a service that may be vital to the operation of your PC.