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Service Control Manager (services.exe)

The Service Control Manager (SCM)

Maintains a database of installed services
starts and stops these services
…

The SCM itself is started when Windows is started.

The database of services is stored in the registry under HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services.

SCM is pronounced as SCUM.

The SCM is an RPC Server.

The SCM executable

The SCM is implemented by the services.exe executable.

services.exe is started by wininit.exe.

SvcCtrlMain()

SvcCtrlMain() is the SCM's entry point.

Communication with the Service Control Manager

Windows provides (at least) two tools to communicate with the Service Control Manager:

sc.exe (the Service Control Manager Configuration Tool)
The MMC Snap in services.msc

See also

The start value under the registry key HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\driverName.

The client-side APIs of the SCM are implemented in advapi32.dll.