diff --git a/receiver/windowsservicereceiver/README.md b/receiver/windowsservicereceiver/README.md
index 42d5f01a8975..9ed9295e590b 100644
--- a/receiver/windowsservicereceiver/README.md
+++ b/receiver/windowsservicereceiver/README.md
@@ -16,26 +16,25 @@ The Windows Service Receiver is a receiver for scraping information about servic
 
 ## Getting Started
 
-By default the Windows Service Receiver will attempt to identify and monitor the status of all specified services on the host machine.
- This behavior can be changed by a user setting the `monitor_all` field to true which will tell the receiver to attempt to build a list
- and monitor the status of all services present on the host machine. The collection interval for the receiver may also be modified by 
- specifying a value. Default collection interval is every one minute.
+By default the Windows Service Receiver will attempt to identify and monitor the status of all specified services on the host machine. If the `include_services` field is present but empty the receiver will assume that the user wishes to monitor _ALL_ services present on a machine. Should you wish to monitor a majority of services (but not all) an optional `exclude_services` services field may be included with a list of services you do not wish to see metrics from.
 
 An example of monitoring three services on a host:
 ```yaml
 windowsservice:
   collection_interval: <duration> # default = 1m
-  services:
+  include_services:
     - service1
     - service2
     - service3
     ...
 ```
-The case where you wish to monitor all services present on a host machine:
+The case where you wish to monitor all services present on a host machine, except for `service3`:
 ```yaml
 windowsservice:
   collection_interval: <duration> # default = 1m
-  monitor_all: true
+  include_services:
+  exclude_services:
+    - service3
     ...
 ```
 
diff --git a/receiver/windowsservicereceiver/config.go b/receiver/windowsservicereceiver/config.go
index 3faf6d7449e6..db01578aa68e 100644
--- a/receiver/windowsservicereceiver/config.go
+++ b/receiver/windowsservicereceiver/config.go
@@ -10,8 +10,8 @@ import (
 // Config defines configuration for windowsservice receiver.
 type Config struct {
 	scraperhelper.ControllerConfig `mapstructure:",squash"`
-	Services                       []string `mapstructure:"services"`    // user provided list of services to monitor with receiver
-	MonitorAll                     bool     `mapstructure:"monitor_all"` // monitor all services on host machine. supercedes services
+	IncludeServices                []string `mapstructure:"include_services"` // user provided list of services to monitor with receiver
+	ExcludeServices                []string `mapstructure:"exclude_services"` // user provided list of services to be excluded
 }
 
 // Validate checks the receiver configuration is valid
diff --git a/receiver/windowsservicereceiver/go.mod b/receiver/windowsservicereceiver/go.mod
index 89aee6f6c4fe..fe662ef05ee9 100644
--- a/receiver/windowsservicereceiver/go.mod
+++ b/receiver/windowsservicereceiver/go.mod
@@ -1,6 +1,6 @@
 module github.com/open-telemetry/opentelemetry-collector-contrib/receiver/windowsservicereceiver
 
-go 1.23.1
+go 1.22.0
 
 require (
 	github.com/google/go-cmp v0.6.0
diff --git a/receiver/windowsservicereceiver/winapi.go b/receiver/windowsservicereceiver/winapi.go
new file mode 100644
index 000000000000..6f729980a190
--- /dev/null
+++ b/receiver/windowsservicereceiver/winapi.go
@@ -0,0 +1,51 @@
+// Copyright The OpenTelemetry Authors
+// SPDX-License-Identifier: Apache-2.0
+//go:build windows
+
+package windowsservicereceiver
+
+import (
+	"syscall"
+
+	"golang.org/x/sys/windows"
+	"golang.org/x/sys/windows/svc/mgr"
+)
+
+type Manager struct {
+	Handle windows.Handle
+}
+
+func SCConnect() (*Manager, error) {
+	var s *uint16
+
+	h, err := windows.OpenSCManager(s, nil, windows.GENERIC_READ)
+	if err != nil {
+		return nil, err
+	}
+
+	if err != nil {
+		return nil, err
+	}
+
+	return &Manager{
+		Handle: h,
+	}, nil
+}
+
+func (m *Manager) Disconnect() error {
+	return windows.CloseServiceHandle(m.Handle)
+}
+
+func (m *Manager) OpenService(sName string) (*mgr.Service, error) {
+	ptr, err := syscall.UTF16PtrFromString(sName)
+	if err != nil {
+		return nil, err
+	}
+
+	h, err := windows.OpenService(m.Handle, ptr, windows.GENERIC_READ)
+	if err != nil {
+		return nil, err
+	}
+
+	return &mgr.Service{Name: sName, Handle: h}, nil
+}
diff --git a/receiver/windowsservicereceiver/windowsservice.go b/receiver/windowsservicereceiver/windowsservice.go
index a81a4e0b0068..e6f1617d65aa 100644
--- a/receiver/windowsservicereceiver/windowsservice.go
+++ b/receiver/windowsservicereceiver/windowsservice.go
@@ -5,34 +5,29 @@
 package windowsservicereceiver // import "github.com/open-telemetry/opentelemetry-collector-contrib/receiver/windowsservicereceiver"
 
 import (
-	"unsafe"
-
-	"golang.org/x/sys/windows"
 	"golang.org/x/sys/windows/svc/mgr"
 )
 
 // represents the service struct before we have converted it into a metric
-type Service struct {
+type ServiceStatus struct {
 	ServiceStatus uint32
 	StartType     uint32
-	Name          string
 	service       *mgr.Service
 }
 
-func GetService(sname string) (*Service, error) {
-	manager, err := mgr.Connect()
-	defer manager.Disconnect()
+func GetService(sname string) (*ServiceStatus, error) {
+	m, err := SCConnect()
+	defer m.Disconnect()
 	if err != nil {
 		return nil, err
 	}
 
-	service, err := manager.OpenService(sname)
+	service, err := m.OpenService(sname)
 	if err != nil {
 		return nil, err
 	}
 
-	s := Service{
-		Name:    sname,
+	s := ServiceStatus{
 		service: service,
 	}
 
@@ -49,33 +44,17 @@ func GetService(sname string) (*Service, error) {
 }
 
 // populates fields from service status query
-//
-// docs for the functions used are found here
-// https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/win32/api/winsvc/nf-winsvc-queryservicestatusex
-func (s *Service) getStatus() error {
-	// we need to do this in order to get the size of the buffer we need to actually read the status
-	var bytesNeeded uint32
-
-	if err := windows.QueryServiceStatusEx(s.service.Handle, windows.SC_STATUS_PROCESS_INFO, nil, 0, &bytesNeeded); err != windows.ERROR_INSUFFICIENT_BUFFER {
-		return err
-	}
-
-	// allocate our buffer with this fun little trick
-	buf := make([]byte, bytesNeeded) // make an empty buffer of the required size
-	// remember: unsafe.Pointer() is basically like void * in C, so this is probably pretty sketchy.
-	lp := (*windows.SERVICE_STATUS_PROCESS)(unsafe.Pointer(&buf[0]))
-
-	// the second time around we know our required buffer (bytesRemaining is set to [bytes needed to read status] - [bytes of buffer supplied])
-	if err := windows.QueryServiceStatusEx(s.service.Handle, windows.SC_STATUS_PROCESS_INFO, &buf[0], uint32(len(buf)), &bytesNeeded); err != nil {
+func (s *ServiceStatus) getStatus() error {
+	st, err := s.service.Query()
+	if err != nil {
 		return err
 	}
-
-	s.ServiceStatus = lp.CurrentState
+	s.ServiceStatus = uint32(st.State)
 	return nil
 }
 
 // popualtes fields from service config query
-func (s *Service) getConfig() error {
+func (s *ServiceStatus) getConfig() error {
 	c, err := s.service.Config()
 	if err != nil {
 		return err