The service control manager (SCM) is started by Windows NT at system boot. It is a remote procedure call (RPC) server, so that service configuration and service control programs can manipulate services on remote machines.
The Win32 API includes a set of functions that provide an interface for the following tasks performed by the SCM:
�Maintaining the database of installed services.
�Starting services and driver services either upon system startup or upon demand.
�Enumerating installed services and driver services.
�Maintaining status information for running services and driver services.
�Transmitting control requests to running services.
�Locking and unlocking the service database.
The following sections describe the SCM in more detail.
�Database of Installed Services