Creating a Windows Service Application

Creating a Service

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To create and configure your service

1. On the File menu, click New Project.
   The New Project dialog box opens.
2. Select the Windows Service project from the list of Visual Basic, Visual C#, or Visual C++ project templates, and name it MyNewService. Click OK.
3. Click the designer to select Service1. Then, in the Properties window, set the ServiceName and the (Name) property for Service1 to MyNewService.
4. Set the AutoLog property to true.
5. On the View menu, click Code to open the Code Editor. Edit the Main method to create an instance of MyNewService. When you renamed the service in step 3, the class name was not modified in the Main method. In Visual C# applications, the Main method is located in the Program.cs file.
   
   // Change the following line to match.
   ServicesToRun = new System.ServiceProcess.ServiceBase[]
      { new MyNewService() };
   System.ServiceProcess.ServiceBase.Run(ServicesToRun);
   }
   
   

Adding Features to the Service

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In the next section, you add a custom event log to the Windows service. Event logs are not associated in any way with Windows services. Here the EventLog component is used as an example of the type of component you could add to a Windows service. To add custom event log functionality to your service

1. In Solution Explorer, right-click Service1.vb or Service1.cs and select View Designer.
2. From the Components tab of the Toolbox, drag an EventLog component to the designer.
3. In Solution Explorer, right-click Service1.vb or Service1.cs and select View Code.
4. Edit the constructor to define a custom event log.
   
   

   public MyNewService()
   {
   InitializeComponent();
   if (!System.Diagnostics.EventLog.SourceExists("MySource")) 
   {         
   System.Diagnostics.EventLog.CreateEventSource(
   "MySource","MyNewLog");
   }
   eventLog1.Source = "MySource";
   eventLog1.Log = "MyNewLog";
   }

   
   

To define what occurs when the service starts

• In the Code Editor, locate the OnStart method that was automatically overridden when you created the project, and write code to determine what occurs when the service starts running:
  
  
  

  protected override void OnStart(string[] args)
  {
  eventLog1.WriteEntry("In OnStart");
  }

To define what occurs when the service is stopped

• In the Code Editor, select the OnStop procedure from the Method Name drop-down list, which was automatically overridden when you created the project. Write code to determine what occurs when the service is stopped:
  
  
  
  

  protected override void OnStop()
  {
  eventLog1.WriteEntry("In onStop.");
  }

Some custom actions have to occur when a Windows service is installed, which can be done by the Installer class. Visual Studio can create these installers specifically for a Windows service and add them to your project.

To create the installers for your service

1. In Solution Explorer, right-click Service1.vb or Service1.cs and select View Designer.
   
   
2. Click the background of the designer to select the service itself, instead of any of its contents.
   
   
3. With the designer in focus, right-click, and then click Add Installer.
   
   By default, a component class that contains two installers is added to your project. The component is named ProjectInstaller, and the installers it contains are the installer for your service and the installer for the service's associated process.
   
   
4. In Design view for ProjectInstaller, click ServiceInstaller1 or serviceInstaller1.
   
   
5. In the Properties window, set the ServiceName property to MyNewService.
   
   
6. Set the StartType property to Automatic.
   
   
7. In the designer, click ServiceProcessInstaller1 (for a Visual Basic project), or serviceProcessInstaller1 (for a Visual C# project). Set the Account property to LocalSystem. This will cause the service to be installed and to run on a local service account.
   
   

To build your service project

1. In Solution Explorer, right-click your project and then click Properties. The project's Property Designer appears.
   
   
2. On the Application page, from the Startup object list, click MyNewService.
   
   
3. Press CTRL+SHIFT+B to build the project.
   

Now that the project is built, it can be deployed. A setup project will install the compiled project files and run the installers that are required to run the Windows service. To create a complete setup project you will have to add the project output, MyNewService.exe, to the setup project and then add a custom action to have MyNewService.exe installed. For more information about setup projects, see Setup Projects. For more information about custom actions, see Walkthrough: Creating a Custom Action.

To create a setup project for your service

1. In Solution Explorer, right-click to select your solution, point to Add, and then click New Project.
   
   
2. In the Project Types pane, select the Setup and Deployment Projects folder.
   
   
3. In the Templates pane, select Setup Project. Name the project MyServiceSetup. Click OK.
   
   A setup project is added to the solution.
   

Next you will add the output from the Windows service project, MyNewService.exe, to the setup.

To add MyNewService.exe to the setup project

1. In Solution Explorer, right-click MyServiceSetup, point to Add, and then click Project Output.
   
   The Add Project Output Group dialog box appears.
   
   
2. MyNewService is selected in the Project box.
   
   
3. From the list, select Primary Output, and click OK.
   
   A project item for the primary output of MyNewService is added to the setup project.
   
   

Now add a custom action to install the MyNewService.exe file.

To add a custom action to the setup project

1. In Solution Explorer, right-click the setup project, point to View, and then click Custom Actions.
   
   The Custom Actions editor appears.
   
   
2. In the Custom Actions editor, right-click the Custom Actions node and click Add Custom Action.
   
   The Select Item in Project dialog box appears.
   
   
3. Double-click the Application Folder in the list to open it, select Primary Output from MyNewService (Active), and click OK.
   
   The primary output is added to all four nodes of the custom actions — Install, Commit, Rollback, and Uninstall.
   
   
4. In Solution Explorer, right-click the MyServiceSetup project and click Build.
   
   

To install the Windows Service

1. To install MyNewService.exe, right-click the setup project in Solution Explorer and select Install.
   
   
2. Follow the steps in the Setup Wizard. Build and save your solution.