windows service startup timeout

I agree with Romulo on finishing to start your service as soon as possible. However, if you need the time and you are using .NET Framework 2.0 or later, you might consider ServiceBase.RequestAdditionalTime() method.

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/system.serviceprocess.servicebase.requestadditionaltime.aspx

protected override void OnStart()
{
    this.RequestAdditionalTime(10000);
    // do your stuff
}