[c#] How to create an installer for a .net Windows Service using Visual Studio

How do I create an installer for a Windows Service that I have created using Visual Studio?

I follow Kelsey's first set of steps to add the installer classes to my service project, but instead of creating an MSI or setup.exe installer I make the service self installing/uninstalling. Here's a bit of sample code from one of my services you can use as a starting point.

public static int Main(string[] args)
{
    if (System.Environment.UserInteractive)
    {
        // we only care about the first two characters
        string arg = args[0].ToLowerInvariant().Substring(0, 2);

        switch (arg)
        {
            case "/i":  // install
                return InstallService();

            case "/u":  // uninstall
                return UninstallService();

            default:  // unknown option
                Console.WriteLine("Argument not recognized: {0}", args[0]);
                Console.WriteLine(string.Empty);
                DisplayUsage();
                return 1;
        }
    }
    else
    {
        // run as a standard service as we weren't started by a user
        ServiceBase.Run(new CSMessageQueueService());
    }

    return 0;
}

private static int InstallService()
{
    var service = new MyService();

    try
    {
        // perform specific install steps for our queue service.
        service.InstallService();

        // install the service with the Windows Service Control Manager (SCM)
        ManagedInstallerClass.InstallHelper(new string[] { Assembly.GetExecutingAssembly().Location });
    }
    catch (Exception ex)
    {
        if (ex.InnerException != null && ex.InnerException.GetType() == typeof(Win32Exception))
        {
            Win32Exception wex = (Win32Exception)ex.InnerException;
            Console.WriteLine("Error(0x{0:X}): Service already installed!", wex.ErrorCode);
            return wex.ErrorCode;
        }
        else
        {
            Console.WriteLine(ex.ToString());
            return -1;
        }
    }

    return 0;
}

private static int UninstallService()
{
    var service = new MyQueueService();

    try
    {
        // perform specific uninstall steps for our queue service
        service.UninstallService();

        // uninstall the service from the Windows Service Control Manager (SCM)
        ManagedInstallerClass.InstallHelper(new string[] { "/u", Assembly.GetExecutingAssembly().Location });
    }
    catch (Exception ex)
    {
        if (ex.InnerException.GetType() == typeof(Win32Exception))
        {
            Win32Exception wex = (Win32Exception)ex.InnerException;
            Console.WriteLine("Error(0x{0:X}): Service not installed!", wex.ErrorCode);
            return wex.ErrorCode;
        }
        else
        {
            Console.WriteLine(ex.ToString());
            return -1;
        }
    }

    return 0;
}

For VS2017 you will need to add the "Microsoft Visual Studio 2017 Installer Projects" VS extension. This will give you additional Visual Studio Installer project templates. https://marketplace.visualstudio.com/items?itemName=VisualStudioProductTeam.MicrosoftVisualStudio2017InstallerProjects#overview

To install the windows service you can add a new setup wizard type project and follow the steps from Kelsey's answer https://stackoverflow.com/a/9021107/1040040

Nor Kelsey, nor Brendan solutions does not works for me in Visual Studio 2015 Community.

Here is my brief steps how to create service with installer:

1. Run Visual Studio, Go to File->New->Project
2. Select .NET Framework 4, in 'Search Installed Templates' type 'Service'
3. Select 'Windows Service'. Type Name and Location. Press OK.
4. Double click Service1.cs, right click in designer and select 'Add Installer'
5. Double click ProjectInstaller.cs. For serviceProcessInstaller1 open Properties tab and change 'Account' property value to 'LocalService'. For serviceInstaller1 change 'ServiceName' and set 'StartType' to 'Automatic'.

6. Double click serviceInstaller1. Visual Studio creates serviceInstaller1_AfterInstall event. Write code:

   private void serviceInstaller1_AfterInstall(object sender, InstallEventArgs e)
   {
       using (System.ServiceProcess.ServiceController sc = new 
       System.ServiceProcess.ServiceController(serviceInstaller1.ServiceName))
       {
           sc.Start();
       }
   }
   

7. Build solution. Right click on project and select 'Open Folder in File Explorer'. Go to bin\Debug.

8. Create install.bat with below script:

   :::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
   :: Automatically check & get admin rights
   :::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
   @echo off
   CLS 
   ECHO.
   ECHO =============================
   ECHO Running Admin shell
   ECHO =============================
   
   :checkPrivileges 
   NET FILE 1>NUL 2>NUL
   if '%errorlevel%' == '0' ( goto gotPrivileges ) else ( goto getPrivileges ) 
   
   :getPrivileges 
   if '%1'=='ELEV' (shift & goto gotPrivileges)  
   ECHO. 
   ECHO **************************************
   ECHO Invoking UAC for Privilege Escalation 
   ECHO **************************************
   
   setlocal DisableDelayedExpansion
   set "batchPath=%~0"
   setlocal EnableDelayedExpansion
   ECHO Set UAC = CreateObject^("Shell.Application"^) > "%temp%\OEgetPrivileges.vbs" 
   ECHO UAC.ShellExecute "!batchPath!", "ELEV", "", "runas", 1 >> "%temp%\OEgetPrivileges.vbs" 
   "%temp%\OEgetPrivileges.vbs" 
   exit /B 
   
   :gotPrivileges 
   ::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
   :START
   ::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
   setlocal & pushd .
   
   cd /d %~dp0
   %windir%\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v4.0.30319\InstallUtil /i "WindowsService1.exe"
   pause
   

9. Create uninstall.bat file (change in pen-ult line /i to /u)
10. To install and start service run install.bat, to stop and uninstall run uninstall.bat

InstallUtil classes ( ServiceInstaller ) are considered an anti-pattern by the Windows Installer community. It's a fragile, out of process, reinventing of the wheel that ignores the fact that Windows Installer has built-in support for Services.

Visual Studio deployment projects ( also not highly regarded and deprecated in the next release of Visual Studio ) do not have native support for services. But they can consume merge modules. So I would take a look at this blog article to understand how to create a merge module using Windows Installer XML that can express the service and then consume that merge module in your VDPROJ solution.

Augmenting InstallShield using Windows Installer XML - Windows Services

IsWiX Windows Service Tutorial

IsWiX Windows Service Video