Windows – How to figure out the display name of a Windows service from its “short” name

serviceswindows xp

The Windows Event Viewer typically logs only the abbreviated service name, but the Services console lists services alphabetically by their full "Display Name".

If the "Display Name" isn't obvious from the shortened service name, how do I figure out what a service is from its short name? Obviously, I could open up the properties page of every service in the Services console, but there must be a better way.

Best Answer

Try, on the command line:

sc query

and look through that. You could >redirect to a file, as so:

sc query > output.txt

and use a text editor to search through it (And seeing as this creates a comprehensive list of processes, you could keep it around)

Bonus point: If you have a version of grep installed, either from cygwin, or unxutils, or wherever, try:

sc query | grep -i -A 1 "short name"

trying this with uxsms, the DWM service, I get

SERVICE_NAME: UxSms
DISPLAY_NAME: Desktop Window Manager Session Manager

To create a nice listing, you could use

sc query | grep -A 1 "SERVICE_NAME" > Services.txt
Related Question