3. Resolving Problems with System Services
Just about every advanced facet of the operating system
runs as a system service. If an essential service stops, the related
functionality will not be available and your computer won’t work as
expected. When you are troubleshooting problems, you’ll want to ensure
that essential services are running as expected early in your
troubleshooting process. To manage system services, you’ll use the
Services entry in the Computer Management console. Start Computer
Management and access the Services entry by completing the following
steps:
Click the Start button, right-click on the Computer icon, and
then select Manage from the context menu provided.
In Computer Management, double-click the Services and
Applications node and then select Services.
As Figure 3
shows, you’ll now see the available services. Services are listed
by:
- Name
The name of the service.
- Description
A short description of the service and its
purpose.
- Status
The status of the service. If the entry is blank, the
service is stopped.
- Startup Type
The startup setting for the service.
- Log On As
The account the service logs on as. The default in most
cases is the local system account.
Once you’ve accessed the Service node in Computer Management, you
can work with services by completing the following steps:
In the Services view, scroll down on the right side of the
window until you see the service you want to work with. Double-click
the entry to view the properties of this service (see Figure 4).
If the service startup type is listed as Automatic and the
service status is not listed as Started, click the Start button to
start the service.
If the Start button is dimmed, click the Stop button and then
click the Start button.
If a service that should have a startup type of Automatic has
a different configuration, set the startup type as Automatic.
As part of the comprehensive overhaul of the Windows operating
system, essential services in Windows 7 are set to restart automatically
if they fail. You can review and configure the restart settings for a
service by following these steps:
In the Services view, scroll down on the right side of the
window until you see the service you want to work with. Double-click
the entry to view the properties of this service.
On the Recovery tab, the first, second, and third restart
actions are listed as shown in Figure 5. Restart
actions you’ll see include Take No Action, Restart the Service, and
Restart the Computer.
As necessary, use the “First failure” list to set the first
failure option.
As necessary, use the “Second failure” list to set the second
failure option.
As necessary, use the “Subsequent failures” list to set the
third failure option.
Use the “Reset fail count after” text box to set the
expiration period for the failure count. The default value is 1
day.
Use the “Restart service after” text box to set how long
Windows 7 waits to restart a failed service after detection.
Click OK to save your settings.
