Open Services applet in Standard Mode

Ever since somebody at Microsoft decided we needed the services.msc applet to open in “extended” mode, I have been clicking on “standard” to get the view I wanted.  This last week I finally got fed up with this, and decided to do something about it.  As it turns out, this is not the easiest thing to change.  Apparently, us poor users are not allowed to change the behavior for the named services.msc.  We are not worthy. 

What you have to do is author a new named instance – and of course remember to use that one.  I was unsuccessful at renaming, deleting, or otherwise removing the original services.msc.  I am sure there is some method to do so, but I was unwilling to dink too much with an operating system that was working before I messed with it.  YMMV.

Here is what I did: (the example is using an x64 Win7 O/S, but it works equally well for Server 2008, and I imagine, Vista (why are you using that?).

Go to c:\windows\system32 and locate the services.msc applet.  Right-click it and select “author.”

When services opens, click File | Options as shown.

Now, change that console mode to “author.”

Say OK to this…

Change the view to standard…

Now, save this to a name and location of your choosing…

Now when you go to a command line (or in my case about 90% of the time a powershell prompt), and type in jmwservices.msc, I get this “new and de-proved” services applet in standard mode.  I suppose you could mod the original references to the new applet if you want to get fancy.

Enjoy!