OpenSCManager

OpenSCManager

The OpenSCManager function establishes a connection to the service control manager on the specified computer and opens the specified service control manager database.

SC_HANDLE OpenSCManager(
  LPCTSTR lpMachineName,
  LPCTSTR lpDatabaseName,
  DWORD dwDesiredAccess
);

Parameters

lpMachineName

[in] Pointer to a null-terminated string that specifies the name of the target computer. If the pointer is NULL or points to an empty string, the function connects to the service control manager on the local computer.

lpDatabaseName

[in] Pointer to a null-terminated string that specifies the name of the service control manager database to open. This parameter should be set to SERVICES_ACTIVE_DATABASE. If it is NULL, the SERVICES_ACTIVE_DATABASE database is opened by default.

dwDesiredAccess

[in] Access to the service control manager. For a list of access rights, see Service Security and Access Rights.

Before granting the requested access rights, the system checks the access token of the calling process against the discretionary access-control list of the security descriptor associated with the service control manager.

The SC_MANAGER_CONNECT access right is implicitly specified by calling this function.

Return Values

If the function succeeds, the return value is a handle to the specified service control manager database.

If the function fails, the return value is NULL. To get extended error information, call GetLastError.

The following error codes can be set by the SCM. Other error codes can be set by the registry functions that are called by the SCM.

Return code	Description
ERROR_ACCESS_DENIED	The requested access was denied.
ERROR_DATABASE_DOES_NOT_EXIST	The specified database does not exist.
ERROR_INVALID_PARAMETER	A specified parameter is invalid.

Remarks

When a process uses the OpenSCManager function to open a handle to a service control manager database, the system performs a security check before granting the requested access. For more information, see Service Security and Access Rights.

Only processes with Administrator privileges are able to open a database handle that can be used by the CreateService and LockServiceDatabase functions.

The returned handle is only valid for the process that called the OpenSCManager function. It can be closed by calling the CloseServiceHandle function.

Example Code

For an example, see Opening an SCManager Database.

Requirements

Client	Requires Windows XP, Windows 2000 Professional, or Windows NT Workstation.
Server	Requires Windows Server 2003, Windows 2000 Server, or Windows NT Server.
Header	Declared in Winsvc.h; include Windows.h.
Library	Link to Advapi32.lib.
DLL	Requires Advapi32.dll.
Unicode	Implemented as OpenSCManagerW (Unicode) and OpenSCManagerA (ANSI).