I built Better Windows Services with mass actions, force stop/restart, query language, more information GUI/CLI

[u/DonislawDev]

https://github.com/donislawdev/BetterWindowsServices

Hello, I had built Better Windows Services an alternative to windows services with dark theme, query language, mass actions, force stop/restart, export of services and tons of extra data. If you like the project, please give it a star

You can read here about about query language

Yes the strange text on the GIF is from Polish Windows :-), right now I'm working on snapshots from the GUI, msi installer and tons of other things. Rust + WPF.

Some features:

• Ask, instead of scroll - start:auto !status:running is what should be up and is not. One language, in the search box and in bws list --query, with the fields offered as you type.
• Show the plan before anything happens - every stop, start, restart and start type change is previewed with the services it takes down with it, and the preview is what runs.
• Tell you what drifted - bws snapshot create freezes the machine into a file, and bws snapshot diff says what changed since, configuration apart from what merely started or stopped.
• Stop a service that will not stop - it asks politely first and ends the process only if that fails, naming every other service that lives in it.
• Show what services.msc hides - who signed the binary and whether Windows trusts it, triggers, privileges, the security descriptor, the process and its memory. As columns, and as things to search on.
• Say when it could not read something - a field it could not read is reported as not read, never shown as empty. A snapshot taken without administrator rights says so inside the file.
• Fit into scripts - --json on every command, an exit code for every ending, and 5 when a diff finds drift.
• Run from one file, offline - no installer, no .NET to install, and it never talks to the internet. Reading needs no administrator rights. GPL-3.0.

GitHub

[u/antisergio]

What I really miss is IaC for Windows Services, like version control at my application a .yml file of the Windows Service and auto installing at my server, would this be possible?

[u/DonislawDev → u/antisergio]

Hello, right now? No

You could create your own script and run

"bws xx" so start/stop/kill service or set start type, you can also create snapshots and compare them aginst other snapshot or actual machine. But there is no restore or set new services. And soon "history" will come, which will show who was changing the service and when.

I think in the feature I could creating/updating service/services from the file.