Service management (Get/Start/Stop-Service) in PowerShell - Practice Problems & Coding Challenges

Challenge - 5 Problems

💻 Command Output

intermediate

What is the output of this PowerShell command?

Consider the following command run on a Windows machine with a service named 'wuauserv' (Windows Update service). What will be the output type of this command?

PowerShell

Get-Service -Name wuauserv | Select-Object -Property Status

A An error saying the service 'wuauserv' does not exist

B The full details of the 'wuauserv' service including display name and service type

C A list of all services on the machine

D A table showing the Status property with values like 'Running' or 'Stopped'

💡 Hint

Think about what Select-Object does when you specify a property.

Get-Service fetches the service object. Select-Object with -Property Status returns only the Status property in a table format, not the full service details or all services.

💻 Command Output

intermediate

What happens when you run this command on a stopped service?

You run the following command on a service named 'Spooler' which is currently stopped. What will be the output?

PowerShell

Start-Service -Name Spooler; Get-Service -Name Spooler | Select-Object -Property Status

A It outputs nothing because Get-Service fails after Start-Service

B It throws an error because the service is stopped

C It starts the Spooler service and outputs 'Running' as the Status

D It outputs 'Stopped' because Start-Service does not change the status

💡 Hint

Start-Service changes the service state if possible.

Start-Service starts the service if it is stopped. Then Get-Service shows the updated status, which should be 'Running'.

📝 Syntax

advanced

Which command correctly stops a service and waits for it to stop?

You want to stop the service named 'bits' and ensure it is fully stopped before continuing. Which command is correct?

A Stop-Service -Name bits -Force -PassThru | Wait-Service -Status Stopped

B Stop-Service -Name bits; Get-Service -Name bits | Where-Object { $_.Status -eq 'Stopped' }

C Stop-Service -Name bits -Force; Start-Sleep -Seconds 5

D Stop-Service bits -Wait

💡 Hint

Look for a way to wait for the service status after stopping it.

Option A stops the service with -Force and outputs the service object with -PassThru, then pipes it to Wait-Service which waits until the status is 'Stopped'. Other options either don't wait properly or use invalid parameters.

🔧 Debug

advanced

Why does this script fail to start the service?

This script is supposed to start the 'w32time' service but fails with an error. What is the cause?

PowerShell

if ((Get-Service -Name w32time).Status -eq 'Running') {
  Write-Output 'Service already running'
} else {
  Start-Service -Name w32time
  Write-Output 'Service started'
}

A The script fails because it does not have administrator privileges to start the service

B The service name 'w32time' is incorrect and causes an error

C The script syntax is invalid due to missing braces

D Get-Service does not return a Status property

💡 Hint

Starting services usually requires special permissions.

Starting or stopping services requires administrator rights. Without them, Start-Service throws an error. The script syntax and service name are correct, and Get-Service returns Status.

🚀 Application

expert

How to create a script that restarts a service only if it is running?

You want a PowerShell script that restarts the 'Spooler' service only if it is currently running. Which script correctly does this?

A Get-Service -Name Spooler | Where-Object { $_.Status -eq 'Running' } | Restart-Service

B if ((Get-Service -Name Spooler).Status -eq 'Running') { Restart-Service -Name Spooler } else { Write-Output 'Service not running' }

C Stop-Service -Name Spooler; Start-Service -Name Spooler

D Restart-Service -Name Spooler -Force

💡 Hint

Check the service status before restarting it.

Option B checks if the service is running before restarting it. Option B restarts regardless of status. Option B stops and starts without checking. Option B tries to pipe service objects to Restart-Service, which does not accept pipeline input.