What does Windows error code 1072 (ERROR_SERVICE_MARKED_FOR_DELETE) mean?

ERROR_SERVICE_MARKED_FOR_DELETE

What ERROR_SERVICE_MARKED_FOR_DELETE means

ERROR_SERVICE_MARKED_FOR_DELETE (1072) means the Service Control Manager has accepted deletion of the service, but the service object has not yet disappeared. Deletion remains pending while an open service handle still references it.

Why later operations fail

Once a service is marked for deletion, attempts to reopen, recreate, or modify that service can fail even if its process has already stopped. Stopping the executable and deleting the service are separate lifecycle events.

What to verify

• Close service handles held by the installer, management console, monitoring process, or other SCM clients.
• Confirm that the process performing deletion also closes its own service and SCM handles.
• Retry creation only after the old service object has actually been removed.

Recovery

Prefer closing the outstanding handles and allowing the pending deletion to complete. A reboot also clears handle ownership, but it should not be the first response when a reproducible installer or service-management process is leaking a handle.

Reference

• Microsoft: DeleteService