Trouble Creating Windows Services With “sc.exe create”

I was recently tasked with figuring out why a seemingly correct call to sc.exe wasn’t working. This turned into an exercise in frustration as I tried the command about 50 different ways. This is close, but not close enough:

REM Don’t do this—it doesn’t work (keep reading) **

sc.exe create ServiceName binpath="C:\Path\Service.exe -args"
                              depend="tcpip"
                              DisplayName="Service Name"

DESCRIPTION: Creates a service entry in the registry and Service Database.
USAGE: sc <server> create [service name] [binPath= ] <option1> <option2>...
OPTIONS:
NOTE: The option name includes the equal sign.
 type= <own|share|interact|kernel|filesys|rec>
       (default = own)
 start= <boot|system|auto|demand|disabled>
       (default = demand)
 error= <normal|severe|critical|ignore>
       (default = normal)
 binPath= <BinaryPathName>
 group= <LoadOrderGroup>
 tag= <yes|no>
 depend= <Dependencies(separated by / (forward slash))>
 obj= <AccountName|ObjectName>
       (default = LocalSystem)
 DisplayName= <display name>
 password= <password>

It unhelpfully just dumps the usage information without telling me what I did wrong. After screwing around with it for far too long, I finally figured it out. It says that each “option name includes the equal sign”, but it also includes the space after the equal sign.

It turns out that a literal, precise interpretation of the command line arguments is needed:

C:>sc.exe create ServiceName binpath= “C:\Path\Service.exe -args” depend= “tcpip” DisplayName= “Service Name” [SC] CreateService SUCCESS ```

Obvious, right? :/ I’m sure the devs have their reasons for this unusual parsing requirement but it’s definitely a big usability fail.

Interestingly, while preparing this post I learned that the help info has been improved in Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008:

NOTE: The option name includes the equal sign. A space is required between the equal sign and the value.

So I guess now it’s documented, but still a usability fail.

8 comments

wolverine said on 2012-05-17

Thanks a lot. It helped.

Unknown said on 2013-01-10

Gracias me ayudado demasiado.

Zafar Iqbal said on 2013-02-23

Thanks dear its working

Unknown said on 2013-04-01

That solved my problem, thanks!

movie2one said on 2013-09-18

Thank you, you have saved my time..

Unknown said on 2013-10-31

Big thanks from me too.

What an awful piece of work sc.exe is for something so important. Really pathetic.

Luisma said on 2014-07-01

Thank you so much. I was going crazy before this.

You should post ir on StackOverflow.com

Best regards,

Kaziu said on 2015-01-28

It seems to be fixed now, doesn’t it? I didn’t put the spaces and it works fine.

Comments closed