Q: How can I get the Username, and StartType for a Windows Service?
A: Quick answer is PowerShell 7.
Microsoft is doing a great job on PowerShell with each version they release. The simple answer to this question is a command called Get-Service. But there is a big update that makes getting the required information much easier with PowerShell 7. I will show the result of this command using both PowerShell 7 and Windows PowerShell 5.1.
Let’s start by typing the simple command Get-Service Workstation. This command return basic details for a service called Workstation. The result is the same for both PowerShell 7 and Windows PowerShell 5.1.
Status Name DisplayName
------ ---- -----------
Running LanmanWorkstation Workstation
To drill-down and get a more detailed result, we need to see all the associated properties and methods for this service, which can be achieved using the following command.
Getting Windows Services using Get-Service
Get-Service Workstation | Get-Member | Select-Object Name, MemberType
The output returns a list of members that can be invoked in the command line. Here is the output in PowerShell 7.
Name MemberType
---- ----------
Name AliasProperty
RequiredServices AliasProperty
Disposed Event
Close Method
Continue Method
Dispose Method
Equals Method
ExecuteCommand Method
GetHashCode Method
GetLifetimeService Method
GetType Method
InitializeLifetimeService Method
Pause Method
Refresh Method
Start Method
Stop Method
WaitForStatus Method
BinaryPathName Property
CanPauseAndContinue Property
CanShutdown Property
CanStop Property
Container Property
DelayedAutoStart Property
DependentServices Property
Description Property
DisplayName Property
MachineName Property
ServiceHandle Property
ServiceName Property
ServicesDependedOn Property
ServiceType Property
Site Property
StartType Property
StartupType Property
Status Property
UserName Property
ToString ScriptMethod
Here is the output in Windows PowerShell 5.1.
Name MemberType
---- ----------
Name AliasProperty
RequiredServices AliasProperty
Disposed Event
Close Method
Continue Method
CreateObjRef Method
Dispose Method
Equals Method
ExecuteCommand Method
GetHashCode Method
GetLifetimeService Method
GetType Method
InitializeLifetimeService Method
Pause Method
Refresh Method
Start Method
Stop Method
WaitForStatus Method
CanPauseAndContinue Property
CanShutdown Property
CanStop Property
Container Property
DependentServices Property
DisplayName Property
MachineName Property
ServiceHandle Property
ServiceName Property
ServicesDependedOn Property
ServiceType Property
Site Property
StartType Property
Status Property
ToString ScriptMethod
PowerShell 7
The big difference is in the Property members. Now, in PowerShell 7, it’s possible to read some additional properties that were not available in Windows PowerShell 5.1, such as UserName, BinaryPathName, StartType. So let’s see how to read these properties using PowerShell 7.
PS 7> Get-Service workstation | select Username,Starttype,BinaryPathName
The output is a clear, with all the required results using a native one-liner command.
UserName StartType BinaryPathName
-------- --------- --------------
NT AUTHORITYNetworkService Automatic C:WINDOWSSystem32svchost.exe -k NetworkService -p
Windows Powershell 5.1
For Windows PowerShell 5.1, the operation is not as simple as in PowerShell. We need to use the Get-CimInstance and pass the required WQL query. So, in Windows PowerShell 5.1, run the following command:
WPS 5.1> Get-CimInstance -Query 'select * from Win32_Service where caption like "Workstation"' | select StartName,StartMode,PathName
StartName StartMode PathName
--------- --------- --------
NT AUTHORITYNetworkService Auto C:WINDOWSSystem32svchost.exe -k NetworkService -p
In this example, we invoke Get-CimInstance with a query to get the service name and then select the required properties, which is a long way and requires you to know extra information related to the original service name and some basic WMI query language.
Summary
More and more to come with PowerShell 7, ease of use, backward compatibility much rich experience. This post shows a small portion of a small change in PowerShell which will help a lot of admin in their day-to-day tasks.
The post Using Get-Service in PowerShell 7 vs. Windows PowerShell 5.1 appeared first on PowerShell Community.