How to solve "The specified service has been marked for deletion" error

Question

I try to remove a Windows Service with sc delete <service name>, and encounter the following error:

[SC] DeleteService FAILED 1072:

The specified service has been marked for deletion.

What I've already done:

• Stopped the service, obviously. The sc queryex "<service name>" gives the following result:

  SERVICE_NAME: Stub service
          TYPE               : 10  WIN32_OWN_PROCESS
          STATE              : 1  STOPPED
          WIN32_EXIT_CODE    : 1067  (0x42b)
          SERVICE_EXIT_CODE  : 0  (0x0)
          CHECKPOINT         : 0x0
          WAIT_HINT          : 0x0
          PID                : 0
          FLAGS              :
  

• Ensured that Microsoft Management Console is closed (taskkill /F /IM mmc.exe),

• Ensured that Event Viewer is closed,

• Removed the key HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\<service name> from the registry.

  Due to this removal, services.msc still shows the service (with a name, but no status or startup type), but the description is “<Failed to Read Description. Error Code: 2 >”. When attempting to view the properties, “The system cannot find the file specified.” is shown five times.

The problem persists.

What is the next step?

Answer 1

There may be several causes which lead to the service being stuck in “marked for deletion”.

1. SysInternals' Process Explorer is opened. Closing it should lead to automatic removal of the service.

2. Task Manager is opened.

3. Microsoft Management Console (MMC) is opened. To ensure all instances are closed, run taskkill /F /IM mmc.exe.

4. Services console is opened. This is the same as the previous point, since Services console is hosted by MMC.

5. Event Viewer is opened. Again, this is the same as the third point.

6. The key HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\{service name} exists.

7. Someone else is logged into the server and has one of the previously mentioned applications opened.

8. An instance of Visual Studio used to debug the service is open.