How to start and stop a service using command line

This method of starting and stopping a service applies to all Windows based operating systems e.g. Windows 2000, XP, Vista and Windows Server 2000/2003.

The first thing you will have to know is the name of the service you want to stop or start. You can find this by going to the services list :

1.Winkey + r
2. Type 'services.msc'
3. Locate the service you wish to start/stop and righ click>properties
4. The Service name is shown at the top on the general tab.

For my example i am going to use Internet Information Server (IIS) as the service i wish to stop. It's service name is 'w3svc'. So once you have the name then perform the following :

1. Winkey + r (or start menu and then click 'Run')
2. Type 'cmd' and press enter to bring up a command prompt.
3. Type Net Start or Net Stop (depending on what action you wish to perform) and then the service name e.g. 'Net stop w3svc'. Press enter.
4. In the above instance the command prompt window would show the messages "The World Wide Web Publishing service is stopping." and "The World Wide Web Publishing service was stopped successfully".

So, to start the service back up i would just use the Net start command.

How to set the homepage in Internet Explorer using the registry

Recently I had a situation where a user couldn't re-set her homepage using the normal Internet Explorer (IE) options.

This was a problem as the site that was set to her homepage no longer existed and every time she launched IE she would get 'Page not found'.

In order to resolve this i applied the following registry hack :

1. Winkey + R or Start menu run
2. Type 'regedit'
3. Go to [HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Main]
"Start Page"="http://www.supportingtech.com/"
4. Change the website to the one you require and you are done.

* Please note that the registry is a very important part of the operating system and you should use extreme caution when making changes.

How to register (or re-register) a DLL or OCX file

Go to the Run item on the Start Menu (or Winkey + R)

Type the following :

regsvr32 <path & filename of dll or ocx>

Press enter

Open control panel items from the 'Run' window

Below are useful shortcuts to items in control panel. Just press 'Winkey + r' to pop open the run dialogue.

Type the commands in bold and the items will open.

control - Control Panel
control folders - Folder Options
control userpasswords - User Accounts
control userpasswords2 - Advanced User Accounts
control desktop - Display Properties
control printers - Printers and Faxes
control mouse - Mouse Properties
control keyboard - Keyboard Properties
control netconnections - Network Connections
control color - Display Properties \ Screensaver
control date/time - Date and Time Properties
control schedtasks - Scheduled Tasks
control admintools - Administrative Tools
control telephony - Phone and Modem Options
control fonts - Fonts Folder
control international - Regional and Language