What is the "Windows Remote Management (WS-Management) (WinRM)" system service on Windows Server 2008? Can I disable "Windows Remote Management (WS-Management)"?

"Windows Remote Management (WS-Management) (WinRM)" is a Windows Server 2008 service that implements the WS-Management protocol for remote management. WS-Management is a standard web services protocol used for remote software and hardware management. The WinRM service listens on the network for WS-Management requests and processes them. The WinRM Service needs to be configured with a listener using winrm.cmd command line tool or through Group Policy in order for it to listen over the network. The WinRM service provides access to WMI data and enables event collection. Event collection and subscription to events require that the service is running. WinRM messages use HTTP and HTTPS as transports. The WinRM service does not depend on IIS but is preconfigured to share a port with IIS on the same machine. The WinRM service reserves the /wsman URL prefix. To prevent conflicts with IIS, administrators should ensure that any websites hosted on IIS do not use the /wsman URL prefix.

Detailed information on "Windows Remote Management (WS-Management)" service:

Service name: WinRM
Display name: Windows Remote Management (WS-Management)
Execution command: 
   C:\Windows\System32\svchost.exe -k NetworkService
Dependencies:
   HTTP Service
   Remote Procedure Call (RPC)

"Windows Remote Management (WS-Management)" service is provided by the svchost.exe program, see "svchost.exe Executable Program on Windows Server 2008" for details.

Disabling "Windows Remote Management (WS-Management)" service will cause issues on running Windows Server 2008.

⇒List of Services on Windows Server 2008

⇒⇒Windows Server 2008 Tutorials