By default, any authenticated user is able to write to application event log. However only administrators can create new event Sources. If all event Sources are known at the service installation time, I recommend register those sources ahead of time, then you will be all set up. Registering is a simple call to EventLog.CreateEventSource. If … Read more
Starting from Windows Vista, a service cannot interact with the desktop. You will not be able to see any windows or console windows that are started from a service. See this MSDN forum thread. On other OS, there is an option that is available in the service option called “Allow Service to interact with desktop”. … Read more
I’ve done this with WiX, which generates .MSI files using the ServiceInstall & SeviceControl commands: <Component Id=’c_WSService’ Guid=’*’> <File Id=’f_WSService’ Name=”WSService.exe” Vital=”yes” Source=”..\wssvr\release\wsservice.exe” KeyPath=”yes” /> <ServiceInstall Id=’WSService.exe’ Name=”WSService” DisplayName=”[product name]” Type=”ownProcess” Interactive=”no” Start=”auto” Vital=”yes” ErrorControl=”normal” Description=’Provides local and remote access to [product name] search facilities.’ /> <ServiceControl Id=’WSService.exe’ Name=”WSService” Start=”install” Stop=’both’ Remove=”uninstall” Wait=”yes” /> </Component> … Read more
If you want to update your Service automatically, you can use a framework such as Google Omaha. This is the technology which Google use to update Chrome. It works well with Services because it runs silently in the background, just like a Service. This article gives more information about using Omaha to auto-update a Service. … Read more
in C#: var sc = new System.ServiceProcess.ServiceController(“MyService”, “MyRemoteMachine”); sc.Start(); sc.WaitForStatus(System.ServiceProcess.ServiceControllerStatus.Running); sc.Stop(); sc.WaitForStatus(System.ServiceProcess.ServiceControllerStatus.Stopped);
Google have an open-source framework called Omaha which does exactly what your point 1. describes. It runs as a scheduled Windows task in the background, outside the applications it manages. Google use Omaha to auto-update their Windows applications, including Chrome. Because it comes from Google, and because it is installed on every Windows machine that … Read more
I’ll summarise some options: Move your code into a .NET Standard library, and host it in a .NET Framework app, so you can use ServiceBase. This will of course need the .NET Framework to be installed on the target machine Use NSSM (the Non-Sucking Service Manager) to manage a .NET Core console app (it has … Read more
Check out the following library: Win32Utils. You can create a simple service that you can start/stop/restart at your leisure. I’m currently using it to manage a Mongrel instance for a Windows hosted Rails app and it works flawlessly.
Copied from here. static void Main(string[] args) { DemoService service = new DemoService(); if (Environment.UserInteractive) { service.OnStart(args); Console.WriteLine(“Press any key to stop program”); Console.Read(); service.OnStop(); } else { ServiceBase.Run(service); } } This should allow you to run from within Visual Studio. Another way would be to embed a programmatic breakpoint in your code by calling … Read more
Either you are not starting any threads on the OnStart method to do work, or there is an exception raised within your OnStart method. If an exception is thrown, it will appear in the Windows Event log. The Windows Event log is a good place to start in any case. Generally an OnStart method looks … Read more