Error 1001. The specified service has been marked for deletion

Sometimes I think I should run a signspotting campaign for error messages. In this particular case, the error happens when trying to install or uninstall a Windows service.

Since there was nothing actionable in the error message (sigh), it was off to the web. On MSDN, the only “fix” was to reboot your machine. Boo. Fortunately after digging deeper it turns out that all you really need to do is close services.msc if it’s open.

Given that this is a fairly common situation for services development, hopefully this post will save a few reboots. And maybe the next version of Windows will say something to the effect of “service was unable to install/uninstall because services.msc is open, please close the control panel and retry your installation.”

49 thoughts on “Error 1001. The specified service has been marked for deletion

  1. Jens Kaae

    All I can say is….exactly the same:

    Thanks a lot.

    I had Services.msc open…..uarghh what a naughty error……. You saved me, probably quite a few, reboots.

    Cheers mate…..

    Reply
  2. Bruce

    Geez, you’d think MS would update their knowledge base, saving me a reboot much appreciated because it takes FOREVER with safenet drive encryption…

    Reply
  3. Eugene

    Thanks very much for posting this tip! You saved me many reboots in the future, since this is not a very obvious reason for the error message.

    Reply
  4. Manish

    Hi,

    You know what, i ahd this problem on my production server, i just could not have rebooted it in any condition untill the weekend.
    You saved my ass.

    Thanks,
    Manish

    Reply
  5. Pingback: Error 1001. The specified service has been marked for deletion | errorspotting.com

  6. sandson

    You’re my hero of the day!

    saved me a 2*20 miles trip (thanks to very strict policies for rebooting production servers).

    Reply
  7. Chad

    Also check to make sure no instances of mmc.exe are running in the Task Manager. I ran into that today when it still failed after all services.msc windows were closed. Killing mmc.exe allowed the install to succeed.

    Reply
  8. Jerk

    OMFG! Man… I lost hours trying to debug this stupid service over such a simple issue? I feel a bit silly!

    Reply
  9. stef

    Thanks a lot. This has been bugging me for a couple of days now. Sometime the error message happens, sometimes, it does not. As you pointed out, rebooting the machine helps, but when working on a live server, that’s not an option.

    Therefore, thanks !!

    Reply

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