{"id":20074,"date":"2020-11-28T11:31:15","date_gmt":"2020-11-28T11:31:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/198.58.113.91\/blog\/?p=20074"},"modified":"2021-04-24T06:22:19","modified_gmt":"2021-04-24T06:22:19","slug":"automatic-trigger-start-manual-services-windows","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.winhelponline.com\/blog\/automatic-trigger-start-manual-services-windows\/","title":{"rendered":"Automatic (Trigger Start) and Manual (Trigger Start) Differences"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The Services MMC shows the service names, their current status, and startup type. Most of you know about the Automatic, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.winhelponline.com\/blog\/service-startup-automatic-vs-automatic-delayed-start\/\">Automatic (Delayed Start)<\/a>, and Manual <a href=\"https:\/\/www.winhelponline.com\/blog\/windows-10-default-services-configuration\/\">startup types<\/a>.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Automatic &#8211; <\/strong>Starts the services at system startup.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Automatic (Delayed start) &#8211;<\/strong> Starts the service after the system has finished booting and after initial demanding operations have completed, so that the system boots up faster.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Manual &#8211; <\/strong>Starts the service as required (defined by dependencies to other services) or when called from an application using the relevant API.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Disabled<\/strong> &#8211; Completely disables the service and prevents it and its dependencies from running.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h4>But what are those &#8220;Trigger start&#8221; services?<\/h4>\n<h4>And what&#8217;s the difference between Automatic (Trigger Start) and Manual (Trigger Start) Differences?<\/h4>\n<p><!--more--><\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-20075\" src=\"https:\/\/www.winhelponline.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/11\/trigger-start-service-1.png\" alt=\"services manual or automatic trigger start\" width=\"715\" height=\"134\" \/><\/p>\n<h2>What are Trigger start Services?<\/h2>\n<p>A trigger-start service is a regular service that&#8217;s configured to run (or stop running) only when it is triggered, that is, only when certain criteria and conditions that you define are met (for example, when the first network IP address becomes available, or when the last network IP is lost).<\/p>\n<p>Here is a list of the available triggers that can be used to configure the startup mode of a given service:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Device interface arrival or departure<\/li>\n<li>Joining or leaving a domain<\/li>\n<li>Opening or closing a firewall port<\/li>\n<li>Group policy change<\/li>\n<li>First IP address available or last IP address leaving<\/li>\n<li>Custom event \u2013 Event Tracing for Windows (ETW)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<div class=\"rp\">For more details, check out the article\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/docs.microsoft.com\/en-us\/openspecs\/windows_protocols\/ms-scmr\/ea3a4b5e-eb28-4c02-a5ba-740cd4a6751c\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener noreferrer\">SERVICE_TRIGGER | Microsoft Docs<\/a><\/div>\n<h3>Example 1: Windows Time service<\/h3>\n<p>The Windows Time service is configured to start when the device is connected to a domain. You can run the following command to view the triggers for this service:<\/p>\n<pre>sc qtriggerinfo w32time<\/pre>\n<p>You&#8217;ll see the following output:<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-20076\" src=\"https:\/\/www.winhelponline.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/11\/trigger-start-service-w32tm.png\" alt=\"trigger start w32time\" width=\"695\" height=\"152\" \/><\/p>\n<pre>[SC] QueryServiceConfig2 SUCCESS\r\n\r\nSERVICE_NAME: W32Time\r\n\r\nSTART SERVICE \r\n    DOMAIN JOINED STATUS : 1ce20aba-9851-4421-9430-1ddeb766e809 [DOMAIN JOINED]<\/pre>\n<p>In Windows 7 and earlier, you see two triggers for this service.<\/p>\n<pre>START SERVICE\r\n\u00a0 \u00a0 DOMAIN JOINED STATUS : 1ce20aba-9851-4421-9430-1ddeb766e809 [DOMAIN JOINED]\r\nSTOP SERVICE\r\n\u00a0 \u00a0 DOMAIN JOINED STATUS : ddaf516e-58c2-4866-9574-c3b615d42ea1 [NOT DOMAIN JOINED]<\/pre>\n<p>As you can see from the queried trigger information of the W32Time service, this service is configured to start when the computer is <strong>joined to a domain<\/strong> and stop when the computer <strong>leaves the domain<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<div class=\"rp\"><strong>RELATED:<\/strong> <a href=\"https:\/\/docs.microsoft.com\/en-us\/troubleshoot\/windows-client\/identity\/w32time-not-start-on-workgroup\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener noreferrer\">W32Time doesn&#8217;t start on a workgroup computer &#8211; Windows Client | Microsoft Docs<\/a><\/div>\n<h3>Example 2: Windows Update service<\/h3>\n<p>The Windows Update service (<code>wuauserv<\/code>) is set to Manual by default, and is configured to trigger start in Windows 10.<\/p>\n<p>Run the following command to see the triggers for the <strong>Windows Update<\/strong> service:<\/p>\n<pre>sc qtriggerinfo wuauserv<\/pre>\n<p>You can see that the service is triggered when the group policy configuration is changed.<\/p>\n<pre>[SC] QueryServiceConfig2 SUCCESS\r\n\r\nSERVICE_NAME: wuauserv\r\n\r\nSTART SERVICE\r\n     GROUP POLICY : <a href=\"https:\/\/docs.microsoft.com\/en-us\/openspecs\/windows_protocols\/ms-scmr\/ea3a4b5e-eb28-4c02-a5ba-740cd4a6751c\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener noreferrer\">659fcae6-5bdb-4da9-b1ff-ca2a178d46e0<\/a> [MACHINE POLICY PRESENT]\r\nSTART SERVICE\r\n     GROUP POLICY : <a href=\"https:\/\/docs.microsoft.com\/en-us\/openspecs\/windows_protocols\/ms-scmr\/ea3a4b5e-eb28-4c02-a5ba-740cd4a6751c\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener noreferrer\">54fb46c8-f089-464c-b1fd-59d1b62c3b50<\/a> [USER POLICY PRESENT]<\/pre>\n<p>The Windows Update service will be triggered when the group policy (machine or user policy) configuration <strong>changes<\/strong>. The GUID <code>659FCAE6-5BDB-4DA9-B1FF-CA2A178D46E0<\/code> represents MACHINE_POLICY_PRESENT_GUID, and\u00a0<code>54FB46C8-F089-464C-B1FD-59D1B62C3B50<\/code> represents USER_POLICY_PRESENT_GUID.<\/p>\n<div class=\"qt\">\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-6338 alignleft\" src=\"https:\/\/www.winhelponline.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/icotip.gif\" alt=\"tips bulb icon\" width=\"34\" height=\"34\" \/>You can test it by yourself. When you first open the Services MMC, the Windows Update service would be in the <code>Stopped<\/code> state. After you load the Group Policy Editor and change the configuration (not necessarily the &#8220;Windows Update&#8221; related setting), it will trigger the Windows Update service to start and show up as <code>Running<\/code>.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_20079\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-20079\" style=\"width: 628px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-20079 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/www.winhelponline.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/11\/wuauserv-trigger-start-gpedit.png\" alt=\"trigger start services explained\" width=\"638\" height=\"457\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-20079\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Windows Update service triggered to start by a Group Policy change.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<h3>Example 3: Display Enhancement service<\/h3>\n<p>The Display Enhancement service (<code>DisplayEnhancementService<\/code>) in Windows 10 is set to <code>Manual (Trigger Start)<\/code>. This service turns on only when the display ambiance changes. The adaptive brightness feature in Windows 10 tracks ambient light sensors, identifying changes in ambient light, trigger starts the Display Enhancement service.<\/p>\n<p>The Display Enhancement service automatically adjusts the brightness of the display based on the surrounding lighting conditions. This service is started only when triggered by the ambient light sensor hardware interface.<\/p>\n<p>The following command shows the list of triggers used by this service:<\/p>\n<pre>sc qtriggerinfo DisplayEnhancementService<\/pre>\n<p>The output contains the list of triggers (there can be more than one trigger for each service) and the device interfaces it&#8217;s linked to.<\/p>\n<h3>Advantages of Trigger Starting services<\/h3>\n<p>You may be wondering why not simply set it to <strong>Automatic<\/strong>, and what&#8217;s the need for triggers?<\/p>\n<p>There are several issues with having services run all the time:<\/p>\n<h4>a) System resources<\/h4>\n<p>First, what&#8217;s the need to run a program or service (even in the background) when there is no need for it to run? For example, think of an update service that checks for new application updates. If the computer is not connected to a network and has no IP available, why should the service be running 24&#215;7? If no Bluetooth devices are connected, why should the service be running all the time?<\/p>\n<p>Service Triggers eliminate the need for services to start when the system starts, or for services to poll or actively wait for an event; a service can start when needed, instead of starting automatically whether or not there is work to do.<\/p>\n<p>Any running process (services included) uses valuable memory and CPU resources. If a hundred services are running at any given time, they add up to quite a lot of memory, handles, threads, and plenty of CPU usage. These wasted resources reduce the overall computer performance and decrease its responsiveness.<\/p>\n<div class=\"rp\"><strong>RELATED:<\/strong> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.winhelponline.com\/blog\/view-resources-usage-each-service-svchost-windows-10\/\">View Resources Usage by Individual Services in Windows 10<\/a><\/div>\n<h4>b) Boot-up time<\/h4>\n<p>The Automatic start services have a big impact on the device&#8217;s boot-up time, and that&#8217;s why Automatic (Delayed start) was introduced in the first place. More system resources (CPU, memory, etc.) usage means more power consumption. This can be critical for laptop computers and could reduce battery life considerably.<\/p>\n<h4>c) Security point of view<\/h4>\n<p>Many services are network-facing and run under Local System or Local Service accounts, contributing to the potential attack surface. Service triggers let services run only when required, thus reducing the ability of an attacker to probe the service easily. These trigger-starting network services help reduce the system attack surface against potential vulnerabilities.<\/p>\n<h2>Automatic (Trigger Start) Vs. Manual (Trigger Start)<\/h2>\n<p>You may be wondering what&#8217;s the difference between Automatic (Trigger Start) and Manual (Trigger Start). If triggers can be added to either Manual or Automatic services, why can&#8217;t they be set to Manual?<\/p>\n<p>A service can be set to Automatic so that it starts when Windows loads. But the service can also stop gracefully on its own when it has completed its task and has no more work to do. You may have seen the following message when starting a service:<\/p>\n<pre>The [servicename] service on local computer started and then stopped. Some services stop automatically if they are not in use by other services or programs.<\/pre>\n<p>The service may have gracefully stopped after it has completed its work. But, if you assign triggers to it, it can still be started when required &#8212; e.g., when particular hardware is connected, firewall port is opened, or when a custom event occurs. Automatic (Trigger Start) is preferred if that service needs to be run at startup, and also be able to be trigger started when required.<\/p>\n<p>Both Automatic and Manual services can have triggers that manually start them. The only difference between the two is that the Automatic services start as soon as the operating system loads. After the Automatic service has stopped, a trigger can start it again at any time.<\/p>\n<p>Likewise, the only difference between <code>Automatic (Triggered)<\/code> and <code>Automatic (Delayed, Triggered)<\/code> is that the latter ones begin to load after all the Automatic (non-delayed) services have finished loading, and trigger events can start both.<\/p>\n<h3>References<\/h3>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/channel9.msdn.com\/blogs\/philpenn\/trigger-started-services\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener noreferrer\">Trigger Started Services | philpenn | Channel 9<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/channel9.msdn.com\/posts\/Trigger-Started-Services-on-Windows-7\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener noreferrer\">Trigger Started Services on Windows | Channel 9<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/docs.microsoft.com\/en-us\/openspecs\/windows_protocols\/ms-scmr\/ea3a4b5e-eb28-4c02-a5ba-740cd4a6751c\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener noreferrer\">[MS-SCMR]: SERVICE_TRIGGER | Microsoft Docs<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.winhelponline.com\/blog\/service-startup-automatic-vs-automatic-delayed-start\/\">Automatic vs. Automatic (Delayed start) Service Startup types<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.winhelponline.com\/blog\/windows-10-default-services-configuration\/\">Windows 10 Default Services Configuration &#8211; Startup type, Permissions, etc.<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>I hope the above information was a little bit helpful!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Services MMC shows the service names, their current status, and startup type. Most of you know about the Automatic, Automatic (Delayed Start), and Manual startup types. Automatic &#8211; Starts the services at system startup. Automatic (Delayed start) &#8211; Starts the service after the system has finished booting and after initial demanding operations have completed, &#8230; <a title=\"Automatic (Trigger Start) and Manual (Trigger Start) Differences\" class=\"read-more\" href=\"https:\/\/www.winhelponline.com\/blog\/automatic-trigger-start-manual-services-windows\/\" aria-label=\"Read more about Automatic (Trigger Start) and Manual (Trigger Start) Differences\">Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[7],"tags":[490],"class_list":["post-20074","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-windows","tag-services"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":10209,"url":"https:\/\/www.winhelponline.com\/blog\/service-startup-automatic-vs-automatic-delayed-start\/","url_meta":{"origin":20074,"position":0},"title":"Automatic vs Automatic (Delayed start) Service Startup types","author":"Ramesh","date":"July 6, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"The Services console (services.msc) in Windows lets you configure the startup type of Windows Services. As you know, you can choose one of the options from the dropdown: Automatic (Delayed Start), Automatic, Manual, or Disabled. But, do you know what's the difference between Automatic and Automatic (Delayed Start). Automatic vs\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Windows&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Windows","link":"https:\/\/www.winhelponline.com\/blog\/category\/microsoft\/windows\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Services MMC","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.winhelponline.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/services-header.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.winhelponline.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/services-header.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.winhelponline.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/services-header.png?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.winhelponline.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/services-header.png?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":1195,"url":"https:\/\/www.winhelponline.com\/blog\/windows-8-services-default-startup-type\/","url_meta":{"origin":20074,"position":1},"title":"Windows 8 Services Configuration Default Startup Type","author":"Ramesh","date":"October 27, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"Windows 8 Services configuration defaults are listed here. Has your services configuration changes gone awry and not sure about the default settings? This list might benefit some users, especially for the tweakers and breakers :)Name Startup TypeLog On AsActiveX Installer (AxInstSV) Manual Local System Application Experience Manual (Trigger Start) Local\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Windows 8&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Windows 8","link":"https:\/\/www.winhelponline.com\/blog\/category\/microsoft\/windows\/windows-8\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1405,"url":"https:\/\/www.winhelponline.com\/blog\/windows-10-default-services-configuration\/","url_meta":{"origin":20074,"position":2},"title":"Windows 10 Default Services Configuration and Permissions","author":"Ramesh","date":"January 1, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"The Windows 10 Services configuration defaults are provided on this page. The settings below are gathered from a Windows 10 Pro PC (clean install, rather than upgrade). Last updated on April 27, 2024 - Windows 10 Pro v22H2 is the current version as of this revision. The Service permission (SDDL\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Windows 10&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Windows 10","link":"https:\/\/www.winhelponline.com\/blog\/category\/microsoft\/windows\/windows-10\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":25534,"url":"https:\/\/www.winhelponline.com\/blog\/windows-11-default-services-configuration\/","url_meta":{"origin":20074,"position":3},"title":"Windows 11 Default Services Configuration and Permissions","author":"Ramesh","date":"January 6, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"The Windows 11 Services configuration defaults are provided on this page. The settings below are gathered from a Windows 11 Pro PC (clean install, rather than upgrade). Updated on June 13, 2024 for Windows 11 Pro 23H2. Note that some of these services may not be found in your system,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Windows 11&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Windows 11","link":"https:\/\/www.winhelponline.com\/blog\/category\/microsoft\/windows\/windows-11\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1111,"url":"https:\/\/www.winhelponline.com\/blog\/windows-7-services-default-startup-type\/","url_meta":{"origin":20074,"position":4},"title":"Windows 7 Services Default Configuration Startup Type and Log On Account","author":"Ramesh","date":"December 6, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"Did you tweak the Services configuration incorrectly, resulting in a system slowdown or leading to other catastrophe? And you don't remember the original configuration to revert back? You may find the Windows 7 default Services configuration table below useful.Note that some of these services may not be found in your\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Windows 7&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Windows 7","link":"https:\/\/www.winhelponline.com\/blog\/category\/microsoft\/windows\/windows-7\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":44,"url":"https:\/\/www.winhelponline.com\/blog\/task-scheduler-service-grayed-out-windows\/","url_meta":{"origin":20074,"position":5},"title":"Task Scheduler Service Grayed Out in Services MMC","author":"Ramesh","date":"March 4, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"When you open the Services management console (services.msc), the Task Scheduler service may be in a disabled state. In the Task Scheduler properties page, all the options may be grayed out, and the service Startup type cannot be changed. RELATED: How to View and Modify Service Permissions in Windows This\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Windows&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Windows","link":"https:\/\/www.winhelponline.com\/blog\/category\/microsoft\/windows\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.winhelponline.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/03\/schedule-grayed.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.winhelponline.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20074","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.winhelponline.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.winhelponline.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.winhelponline.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.winhelponline.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20074"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.winhelponline.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20074\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.winhelponline.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20074"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.winhelponline.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20074"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.winhelponline.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20074"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}