How to make a NET Windows Service start right after the installation

Question

Besides the service StartType   ServiceStartMode Automatic my service does not start after installation  Solution  Inserted this code on my ProjectInstaller  protected override void OnAfterInstall System Collections IDictionary savedState        base OnAfterInstall savedState       using  var serviceController   new ServiceController this serviceInstaller1 ServiceName  Environment MachineName           serviceController Start        Thanks to ScottTx and Francis B

User · Answer

Visual Studio  If you are creating a setup project with VS  you can create a custom action who called a  NET method to start the service  But  it is not really recommended to use managed custom action in a MSI  See this page   ServiceController controller    new ServiceController    controller MachineName        The machine where the service is installed  controller ServiceName        The name of your service installed in Windows Services  controller Start      InstallShield or Wise  If you are using InstallShield or Wise  these applications provide the option to start the service  Per example with Wise  you have to add a service control action  In this action  you specify if you want to start or stop the service   Wix  Using Wix you need to add the following xml code under the component of your service  For more information about that  you can check this page    lt ServiceInstall      Id  ServiceInstaller        Type  ownProcess        Vital  yes        Name          DisplayName          Description          Start  auto        Account  LocalSystem         ErrorControl  ignore         Interactive  no  gt             lt ServiceDependency Id         gt     Add any dependancy to your service    lt  ServiceInstall gt

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To add to ScottTx s answer  here s the actual code to start the service if you re doing it the Microsoft way  ie  using a Setup project etc       excuse the VB net code  but this is what I m stuck with   Private Sub ServiceInstaller1 AfterInstall ByVal sender As System Object  ByVal e As System Configuration Install InstallEventArgs  Handles ServiceInstaller1 AfterInstall     Dim sc As New ServiceController       sc ServiceName   ServiceInstaller1 ServiceName      If sc Status   ServiceControllerStatus Stopped Then         Try               Start the service  and wait until its status is  Running               sc Start               sc WaitForStatus ServiceControllerStatus Running                 TODO  log status of service here  sc Status         Catch ex As Exception               TODO  log an error here   Could not start service  ex Message              Throw         End Try     End If End Sub   To create the above event handler  go to the ProjectInstaller designer where the 2 controlls are   Click on the ServiceInstaller1 control   Go to the properties window under events and there you ll find the AfterInstall event   Note  Don t put the above code under the AfterInstall event for ServiceProcessInstaller1   It won t work  coming from experience

User · Answer

You need to add a Custom Action to the end of the  ExecuteImmediate  sequence in the MSI  using the component name of the EXE or a batch  sc start  as the source  I don t think this can be done with Visual Studio  you may have to use a real MSI authoring tool for that

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You can do this all from within your service executable in response to events fired from the InstallUtil process   Override the OnAfterInstall event to use a ServiceController class to start the service     http   msdn microsoft com en-us library system serviceprocess serviceinstaller aspx

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Use the  NET ServiceController class to start it  or issue the commandline command to start it ---   net start servicename    Either way works

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I ve posted a step-by-step procedure for creating a Windows service in C  here   It sounds like you re at least to this point  and now you re wondering how to start the service once it is installed   Setting the StartType property to Automatic will cause the service to start automatically after rebooting your system  but it will not  as you ve discovered  automatically start your service after installation   I don t remember where I found it originally  perhaps Marc Gravell    but I did find a solution online that allows you to install and start your service by actually running your service itself   Here s the step-by-step    Structure the Main   function of your service like this   static void Main string   args        if  args Length    0               Run your service normally          ServiceBase   ServicesToRun   new ServiceBase    new YourService             ServiceBase Run ServicesToRun         else if  args Length    1            switch  args 0                 case  -install                   InstallService                    StartService                    break              case  -uninstall                   StopService                    UninstallService                    break              default                  throw new NotImplementedException                       Here is the supporting code   using System Collections  using System Configuration Install  using System ServiceProcess   private static bool IsInstalled         using  ServiceController controller            new ServiceController  YourServiceName              try               ServiceControllerStatus status   controller Status            catch               return false                    return true           private static bool IsRunning         using  ServiceController controller            new ServiceController  YourServiceName              if   IsInstalled    return false          return  controller Status    ServiceControllerStatus Running            private static AssemblyInstaller GetInstaller         AssemblyInstaller installer   new AssemblyInstaller          typeof YourServiceType  Assembly  null       installer UseNewContext   true      return installer     Continuing with the supporting code     private static void InstallService         if  IsInstalled    return       try           using  AssemblyInstaller installer   GetInstaller                  IDictionary state   new Hashtable                try                   installer Install state                   installer Commit state                 catch                   try                       installer Rollback state                     catch                     throw                                catch           throw           private static void UninstallService         if    IsInstalled     return      try           using   AssemblyInstaller installer   GetInstaller                   IDictionary state   new Hashtable                try                   installer Uninstall  state                  catch                   throw                                catch           throw           private static void StartService         if    IsInstalled     return       using  ServiceController controller            new ServiceController  YourServiceName              try               if   controller Status    ServiceControllerStatus Running                     controller Start                    controller WaitForStatus  ServiceControllerStatus Running                       TimeSpan FromSeconds  10                              catch               throw                     private static void StopService         if    IsInstalled     return      using   ServiceController controller            new ServiceController  YourServiceName              try               if   controller Status    ServiceControllerStatus Stopped                     controller Stop                    controller WaitForStatus  ServiceControllerStatus Stopped                        TimeSpan FromSeconds  10                              catch               throw                     At this point  after you install your service on the target machine  just run your service from the command line  like any ordinary application  with the -install command line argument to install and start your service    I think I ve covered everything  but if you find this doesn t work  please let me know so I can update the answer

User · Answer

To start it right after installation  I generate a batch file with installutil followed by sc start   It s not ideal  but it works

User · Answer

The easiest solution is found here install-windows-service-without-installutil-exe by  Ho  ng Long   echo OFF echo Stopping old service version    net stop   YOUR SERVICE NAME   echo Uninstalling old service version    sc delete   YOUR SERVICE NAME    echo Installing service    rem DO NOT remove the space after  binpath    sc create   YOUR SERVICE NAME   binpath    PATH TO YOUR SERVICE EXE   start  auto echo Starting server complete pause

[.net] How to make a .NET Windows Service start right after the installation?

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