How to create an installer for a net Windows Service using Visual Studio

Question

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

User · Accepted Answer

In the service project do the following   In the solution explorer double click your services  cs file  It should bring up a screen that is all gray and talks about dragging stuff from the toolbox  Then right click on the gray area and select add installer  This will add an installer project file to your project  Then you will have 2 components on the design view of the ProjectInstaller cs  serviceProcessInstaller1 and serviceInstaller1   You should then setup the properties as you need such as service name and user that it should run as   Now you need to make a setup project  The best thing to do is use the setup wizard   Right click on your solution and add a new project  Add  gt  New Project  gt  Setup and Deployment Projects  gt  Setup Wizard a  This could vary slightly for different versions of Visual Studio  b  Visual Studio 2010 it is located in  Install Templates  gt  Other Project Types  gt  Setup and Deployment  gt  Visual Studio Installer  On the second step select  quot Create a Setup for a Windows Application  quot   On the 3rd step  select  quot Primary output from    quot   Click through to Finish    Next edit your installer to make sure the correct output is included   Right click on the setup project in your Solution Explorer  Select View  gt  Custom Actions    In VS2008 it might be View  gt  Editor  gt  Custom Actions  Right-click on the Install action in the Custom Actions tree and select  Add Custom Action     In the  quot Select Item in Project quot  dialog  select Application Folder and click OK  Click OK to select  quot Primary output from    quot  option  A new node should be created  Repeat steps 4 - 5 for commit  rollback and uninstall actions   You can edit the installer output name by right clicking the Installer project in your solution and select Properties   Change the  Output file name   to whatever you want   By selecting the installer project as well and looking at the properties windows  you can edit the Product Name  Title  Manufacturer  etc    Next build your installer and it will produce an MSI and a setup exe  Choose whichever you want to use to deploy your service

User · Answer

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    Run Visual Studio  Go to File- gt New- gt Project Select  NET Framework 4  in  Search Installed Templates  type  Service  Select  Windows Service   Type Name and Location  Press OK  Double click Service1 cs  right click in designer and select  Add Installer  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   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             Build solution  Right click on project and select  Open Folder in File Explorer   Go to bin Debug  Create install bat with below script                                                Automatically check  amp  get admin rights                                            echo off CLS  ECHO  ECHO                               ECHO Running Admin shell ECHO                                 checkPrivileges  NET FILE 1 gt NUL 2 gt NUL if   errorlevel       0    goto gotPrivileges   else   goto getPrivileges      getPrivileges  if   1    ELEV   shift  amp  goto gotPrivileges    ECHO   ECHO                                        ECHO Invoking UAC for Privilege Escalation  ECHO                                         setlocal DisableDelayedExpansion set  batchPath   0  setlocal EnableDelayedExpansion ECHO Set UAC   CreateObject   Shell Application     gt    temp  OEgetPrivileges vbs   ECHO UAC ShellExecute   batchPath     ELEV        runas   1  gt  gt    temp  OEgetPrivileges vbs     temp  OEgetPrivileges vbs   exit  B    gotPrivileges                                START                              setlocal  amp  pushd    cd  d   dp0  windir  Microsoft NET Framework v4 0 30319 InstallUtil  i  WindowsService1 exe  pause  Create uninstall bat file  change in pen-ult line  i to  u  To install and start service run install bat  to stop and uninstall run uninstall bat

User · Answer

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

User · Answer

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

User · Answer

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  amp  amp  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

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