Plug-In installer service management the fast and easy way (with scripts)

[Starship Krupa]

After we had a discussion about "installer helper" services that plug-in installers install along with the plug-ins (always set to start automatically), I did some research and brushing up of my NT command line scripting.

On my system, there are 5 companies' installer services, that is, services that must be running during the company's install process.

1. Antelope
2. Crow Hill
3. Native Instruments
4. Softube
5. UJAM

The only services out of these that I could find sending information over the network were Native Instruments' NTK Daemon and Antelope Audio's Manager Service. NTK Daemon is pretty chatty, Antelope Manager blipped out one small message at start, then shut up, even when I put Pocket Strings in a project.

Still, I don't want unnecessary programs running on my computer. What to do?

Services are usually managed manually via the Services management console. Start, stop, set startup method (Manual, Automatic, Disabled). You can do it this way, but as more of these silly services get installed, it gets to be a bigger chore.

(what follows is for people confident with messing with this stuff, I am deliberately writing to a level that will filter out people who might get themselves into trouble)

Services may also be managed using the SC shell command, via the command line and in scripts. To learn more about what it can do, open a command prompt and type SC. That will give you a list of the most common (and safest) commands, including Start and Stop.

My research uncovered other commands that don't appear in that list, including the config command, which allows the user to set the startup method.

Armed with this knowledge, I wrote 3 scripts that:

1. Stops all of those companies' services
2. Starts all of those companies' services
3. Stops all of those companies' services and sets their startup to Manual

Microsoft helps companies that don't want users to set their services to Manual by naming the manual startup parameter "demand."

My scripts have been tested on my system, no guarantee that they will work on yours. In order to use them successfully, you must edit them to add any other services you wish to control and subtract any services you don't have on your system. In all cases, the services are not necessary when using the plug-ins, it's only the installer that depends on them. Use at your own risk, etc. etc. Any "trouble" you may cause with the SC command may be repaired using the Services Console or just running a company's installer again.

To use these, first copy and paste them into Notepad or your text editor of choice, then save with the name of your choice, extension .CMD

Important note: you MUST edit or comment out any lines that refer to services you don't have installed. If the script runs into a service that isn't there, it terminates immediately, and the rest of the services won't get their commands.

To run them, right click and choose Run as administrator.

The idea is to run the start script before you install any of these companies' products, then run the stop-and-set-to-manual script after the install is done. Setting them back to manual start is necessary because some of the installers check to see whether you've changed the startup and change it back to Automatic if you have.

I won't upload the scripts as ready-to-run files. Anyone who can't manage the preceding instructions should just use the Services console to manage services.

Script to stop the services:

sc stop Antelope-Manager-Service
sc stop crowhillinstallservice.exe
sc stop NTKDaemonService
sc stop NIHostIntegrationAgent
sc stop softubeinstallerdaemon
sc stop ujaminstallservice.exe

Script to start the services:

sc start Antelope-Manager-Service
sc start crowhillinstallservice.exe
sc start NIHostIntegrationAgent
sc start NTKDaemonService
sc start NIHostIntegrationAgent
sc start softubeinstallerdaemon
sc start ujaminstallservice.exe

Script to stop the services and set them to manual start:

REM these commands stop the running services
sc stop Antelope-Manager-Service
sc stop crowhillinstallservice.exe
sc stop NTKDaemonService
sc stop NIHostIntegrationAgent
sc stop softubeinstallerdaemon
sc stop ujaminstallservice.exe

REM these commands set the services to manual startup
sc config Antelope-Manager-Service start= demand
sc config crowhillinstallservice.exe start= demand
sc config NTKDaemonService start= demand
sc config NIHostIntegrationAgent start= demand
sc config softubeinstallerdaemon start= demand
sc config ujaminstallservice.exe start= demand

 

[jude77]

Wow!  That's impressive!  I wouldn't dare try it myself, but I'm sure there are folks here who will benefit greatly.

On the other hand, I wish somebody had dropped this line on me when I was 20.  I definitely could have used it.

9 hours ago, Starship Krupa said:

(what follows is for people confident with messing with this stuff, I am deliberately writing to a level that will filter out people who might get themselves into trouble)

 

[BTP]

If the service has spaces in its name, you can just do this:

sc stop "the service name"

[kitekrazy]

I just use services.msc.

I never looked at the resources they use either,

I guess process lasso is another option.

You must not have UAD installed. It starts up in Windows.