diff --git a/java/net/i2p/router/WindowsServiceUtil.java b/java/net/i2p/router/WindowsServiceUtil.java
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+++ b/java/net/i2p/router/WindowsServiceUtil.java
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+package net.i2p.router;
+
+import java.io.BufferedReader;
+import java.io.IOException;
+import java.io.InputStreamReader;
+
+/*
+ * Provides querying of Windows services in order to discover I2P Routers
+ * running as a service and avoid launching jpackaged routers redundantly.
+ * It will prompt a user to start their I2P service if one is discovered.
+ * 
+ * see also:
+ * https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-server/administration/windows-commands/sc-query
+ * https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/dotnet/api/system.serviceprocess.servicecontrollerstatus?view=dotnet-plat-ext-6.0
+ * https://stackoverflow.com/questions/10604844/how-to-verify-whether-service-exists-in-services-msc C#, API ideas only
+ * https://stackoverflow.com/questions/334471/need-a-way-to-check-status-of-windows-service-programmatically
+ * https://stackoverflow.com/questions/5388888/find-status-of-windows-service-from-java-application
+ * https://stackoverflow.com/questions/21566847/how-to-check-particular-windows-service-is-running-using
+ * https://stackoverflow.com/questions/9792051/start-windows-service-with-java
+ * 
+ * There's a chance we can't tell ServiceController to do anything so if
+ * that is the case then we'll just launch services.msc and tell the user to
+ * take it from there.
+ *
+ * @author idk
+ * @since 1.9.7
+ */
+
+public class WindowsServiceUtil {
+  public WindowsServiceUtil() {}
+  private String queryService(String serviceName) {
+    String result = "";
+    String line;
+    ProcessBuilder pb = new ProcessBuilder("sc", "query", serviceName);
+    try {
+      Process p = pb.start();
+      try {
+        p.waitFor(); // wait for process to finish then continue.
+        BufferedReader bri =
+            new BufferedReader(new InputStreamReader(p.getInputStream()));
+        while ((line = bri.readLine()) != null) {
+          result += line;
+        }
+      } catch (InterruptedException e) {
+      } catch (IOException e) {
+      }
+    } catch (IOException e) {
+    }
+    return result;
+  }
+  public String getServiceState(String serviceName) {
+    String STATE_PREFIX = "STATE              : ";
+    String s = queryService(serviceName);
+    // check that the temp string contains the status prefix
+    int ix = s.indexOf(STATE_PREFIX);
+    String stateString = "uninstalled";
+    if (ix >= 0) {
+      // compare status number to one of the states
+      String stateStr = s.substring(ix + STATE_PREFIX.length(),
+                                    ix + STATE_PREFIX.length() + 1);
+      int state = Integer.parseInt(stateStr);
+      switch (state) {
+      case (1): // service stopped
+        stateString = "stopped";
+        break;
+      case (2): // service starting
+        stateString = "starting";
+        break;
+      case (3): // don't know yet
+        //stateString = "started";
+        break;
+      case (4): // service started
+        stateString = "started";
+        break;
+      }
+    }
+    return stateString;
+  }
+}