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Check and Restart a Windows Service with PowerShell

Checks & DiagnosticsAugust 17, 2026

Looks up one service by name, starts it when it is stopped, and restarts it when it is already running so a wedged process gets a clean slate. Every state change is written back through the ServerEngine log marker, so the run history shows what the service was doing before the fix, not only that something was restarted.

powershell
# Restart Service
# Author: SENTRI AI Engine | Date: 2026.08.14
#-----------------------------------------------------------------


	$Service = Get-Service -Name $ServiceName -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue
	if ($null -eq $Service)
	{
		Write-Host "<WRITE-LOG = ""*Service: $ServiceName not found.*"">"
		continue
	}

	if ($Service.Status -ne 'Running')
	{
		Write-Host "<WRITE-LOG = ""*Service: $ServiceName is down! Starting...*"">"

		$Service = Get-Service -Name $ServiceName -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue
		Start-Service -Name $ServiceName
		Start-Sleep 2
		$Service.Refresh()

		if ($Service.Status -eq 'Running') {
			Write-Host "<WRITE-LOG = ""*Service: $ServiceName started successfully.*"">"
		} else {
			Write-Host "<WRITE-LOG = ""*Service: $ServiceName failed to start.*"">"
		}
	}
	else {
		$Service = Get-Service -Name $ServiceName -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue
		Restart-Service -Name $ServiceName -Force
		Start-Sleep 2
		$Service.Refresh()

		if ($Service.Status -eq 'Running') {
			Write-Host "<WRITE-LOG = ""*Service: $ServiceName restarted successfully.*"">"
		} else {
			Write-Host "<WRITE-LOG = ""*Service: $ServiceName failed to start.*"">"
		}

	}

Run it across your fleet

This script runs as-is on a single host. Paste it into ServerEngine to schedule it, run it on a whole server group in parallel, and keep the credentials out of the file — see the scripts documentation and the credential store.

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