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Restart a Service with Restart-Service

Stop, start, and restart Windows services in PowerShell — the forgotten one-liner alternative to services.msc or net stop/start.

WindowsservicespowershellMedium risk
Run Restart-Service -Name <name> -Force as administrator to stop and start a service in one step; check state with Get-Service.

01Command

Command
$ Restart-Service -Name wuauserv -Force
Get-Service -Name wuauserv | Select-Object Name, Status, StartType

02What it does

Restart-Service does stop-then-start atomically, and -Force also restarts services that depend on the target — something net stop demands you enumerate manually. Get-Service filters instantly with wildcards (Get-Service *audio*) and reveals StartType, which is what Start-Service cannot change; you need Set-Service -StartupType for that. The classic use is restarting wuauserv or BITS when Windows Update gets stuck.

03Risk

RiskMedium risk
RequirementsRun PowerShell as administrator for services that are not user-managed
!Warning: Restarting a service interrupts anything using it — restarting wuauserv mid-update or restarting a database service can leave work in a bad state.

04Undo

Undo
$ Start-Service -Name wuauserv

05Sources

  • Restart-Service - SS64
    SS64 · technical · 2026-09-17
    Evidence: Shows Restart-Service usage and pipeline patterns with Get-Service.
  • Restart-Service
    Microsoft Learn · vendor-doc · 2026-09-17
    Evidence: Documents Restart-Service including -Force for dependent services.

Last verified: 2026-09-17 · Category: System & Settings

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