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C# System.Diagnostics.Process doesn't work properly

I am using System.Diagnostics.Process in a Windows service application. The application that I call uses DropBox API and Google Drive API. When I login on Google Drive or DropBox it is supposed to open the Web browser and allow access to Drop or Drive, but it doesn't open it. Other functions works properly (create folder on local computer, read files, write logfiles etc).
When I open this application manually with double click, the login process works properly, the web browser is shown and I can allow access.
Something similar happens with other application using Saraff Twain. If I open it manually it works properly, I can scan and save files (on this process some alerts or message box are shown, like a "scanning", "no paper", "no scanner" messages) but when the windows service call it no messages are shown, it scans and save files but without messages.
If I call this application from another windows form or console application the applications works properly.
I don't know what is the problem with the Windows service.
Thanks for your help.
Here is the code that I used in the Windows service app (here it fails), and Windows forms app (here it works fine). I have tried calling CMD.exe and application path as argument, and directly the path on file name.
p.StartInfo.UseShellExecute = false;
p.StartInfo.WindowStyle = System.Diagnostics.ProcessWindowStyle.Hidden;
p.StartInfo.RedirectStandardOutput = true;
p.StartInfo.FileName = "cmd.exe";
p.StartInfo.Arguments = "/C" + " \"" + execName+"\" " + argument;
//p.StartInfo.Verb = "runas";
// writeLogLine(argument + " " + execName);
p.Start();
output = p.StandardOutput.ReadToEnd();
p.WaitForExit();
writeLogLine("out" + output);

A Windows Service is not meant for user interaction as it should be capable of running without any users logged in.
Windows Services are isolated from the users' desktops as a security measure this is why any interaction with a desktop is bound to fail.
Either replace the Windows Service with a regular desktop application or change the Windows Service in such a way that it doesn't need desktop access.

Start & Stop a Windows Service from another Windows Service

I need to control a Windows service (slave) from another one (master) on the same machine (Windows 7 or Server 2008). It's unable to either start or stop the service. What do I need to do to be control the service? The master service is written in C#
UPDATE:
The master service is meant to be a sort of watchdog - it monitors an HTTP connection to the slave and restarts the slave if the slave is non-responsive (not returning any HTTP data).

You can have the master service create a new process that creates a hidden command window with an argument that causes it to call the windows command and start or stop the service. We use this model all the time at my job, the /C will cause the command window to exit as soon as the service finishes changing state.
System.Diagnostics.Process p = new System.Diagnostics.Process ();
System.Diagnostics.ProcessStartInfo psi = new System.Diagnostics.ProcessStartInfo ( "cmd.exe", "/C net [start or stop] [service name]");
psi.WindowStyle = System.Diagnostics.ProcessWindowStyle.Hidden;
p.StartInfo = psi;
P.Start();
You will need to replace the bracketed sections of the command, and sorry if there are any syntax errors I am typing this on my tablet.

The best way to handle windows services is to use System.ServiceProcess namespace. Check it on:
https://ourcodeworld.com/articles/read/363/how-to-start-stop-and-verify-if-a-service-exists-with-c-in-winforms
But you will have some problems trying that because you will need administrator permissions to turn other services off, so you can handle that by following this link (for debug purposes you can open your VS as admin and everything will work):
How do I force my .NET application to run as administrator?

How to display application normally

I am creating a complex service on Windows 7, which starts off by loading an .exe application. The only way to achieve this was to enable to "Interactive Services Detection" service in services.msc.
As a test application, I added the following code which simply opens the system calculator. It works, however not as intended. I first get the following message when starting the service:
When clicking "View this message", it loads the calculator as it is supposed to, but opens a blue full screen mode, and contains the calculator within it.
My question is basically the following: How can I make the application display automatically, and not have to prompt the user to "view the message", and more importantly, how can I get the application to display normally, rather than in this "interactive services detection" sandbox?
This is the code of my sample service:
public partial class OpenCalculator : ServiceBase
{
public Process process;
public OpenCalculator()
{
this.ServiceName = "Open Calculator";
InitializeComponent();
}
protected override void OnStart(string[] args)
{
start_calc();
}
protected override void OnStop()
{
process.Kill();
}
protected void start_calc()
{
try
{
process = new Process();
process.StartInfo.FileName = #"C:\Windows\system32\calc.exe";
process.StartInfo.CreateNoWindow = true;
process.StartInfo.ErrorDialog = false;
process.StartInfo.RedirectStandardError = true;
process.StartInfo.RedirectStandardInput = true;
process.StartInfo.RedirectStandardOutput = true;
process.StartInfo.UseShellExecute = false;
process.StartInfo.WindowStyle = System.Diagnostics.ProcessWindowStyle.Hidden;
process.Start();
using (StreamWriter writer = File.AppendText("C:\\Users\\scaruana\\Desktop\\test.txt"))
{
writer.WriteLine(process);
}
}
catch (Exception ex)
{
using (StreamWriter writer = File.AppendText("C:\\Users\\scaruana\\Desktop\\test.txt"))
{
writer.WriteLine(ex.Message);
}
}
}
}

Services run in session 0, whose desktop you cannot see. Interactive desktops are hosted in other sessions. So, for instance, the first interactive logon runs in session 1. This means that services cannot directly show UI on an interactive desktop.
In older versions of Windows (XP and earlier), the first interactive logon shared session 0 with services. And so when you enabled the allow service to interact with desktop option in the service control manager, the service could show UI on an interactive desktop. However, all that ended with Vista because it was a security risk.
So, you need to start a new process and specifically force it onto the desktop of an logged in interactive user. That is not easy to do. This MSDN blog article covers your options: Launching an interactive process from Windows Service in Windows Vista and later.
Now, that's how you go about starting a new process from a service, and putting the new process onto an interactive desktop. But that is almost certainly the wrong way to solve your problem. As you can see by reading the linked article, doing it that way is complex. The standard solution to your problem is to run an interactive process on the logged in user's desktop. This remains hidden until your service needs to show UI. The service then communicates with the desktop app using your preferred IPC mechanism, and then the desktop app shows the UI.

This question has been the cause of great frustration, and I have finally solved my problem. Yes, I have managed to make a service load a GUI application, even though everyone says that it is impossible. There is a warning though - the "fix" can be considered as exploiting a loophole in Windows, as the code which I used basically passes the Vista and Windows 7 UAC. Essentially, the application is always executed with full rights and bypasses the UAC.
If anyone has this same problem, what you need to do is iterate through a list of logged in users on the PC, and choose to open the UI application in this session (which has the user's desktop), rather than in session 0 where the service is supposed to be running (and which does not have a desktop).
For some people, this might not be a solution as it is not secure. But in my case, security is not a main concern, and I just needed it to work (had to be a service by force).
Hope this helps anyone who has the same problem that I had.

How to start a process from an IIS hosted WCF service?

I would like to run a process from an intranet client on the WCF service side. In my case a client asks a server to create a new process on the server's machine under the provided credentials. WCF service is hosted on IIS 7.5 and I start a process using this code
var processInfo = new ProcessStartInfo("C:\\Windows\\System32\\notepad.exe")
{
UserName = "some user",
Password = MakeSecureString("some password"),
UseShellExecute = false,
LoadUserProfile = true
};
Process process = Process.Start(processInfo);
This code works if I host WCF service as a self-hosted console application running under admin user and I see the notepad started under another user. It fails on IIS with no exception, but process is immediately terminated
process.HasExited = true;
process.ExitCode = -1073741502;
On IIS WCF application is running under the user with admin rights and has got full trust defined in web.config. I cannot use self hosted application as it doesn't support easy continuous delivery (like WebDeploy with IIS web farms).
Q: How can I start a process on a server side from WCF service hosted on IIS?
EDIT:
I stumbled upon this post, with similar issues and I tried all the methods there, including all possible variations for Process.Start and P/Invoke with CreateProcessWithLogonW and CreateProcessAsUser I also tried granting additional permissions to users. Non of this would work with the error messages identical to the ones the guy had posted.

Oleksii, the point is that if you host the WCF service in a console application, there is a windows session (a user logged in and Windows Explorer loaded) for that user and the notepad is opened and shown for that user, so you see it in the UI.
when you host your WCF service in IIS, being a server, IIS requires and allows no user interaction and works also if no user is logged in; in that context there is no UI to host your notepad or other UI enabled applications, you could execute a process for elaboration or other batch jobs but not render a windows UI application, because Windows Explorer is not loaded for you and there is no place to render your process's UI.

here is what I use to call GnuPGP to do encryption. How does your setup compare?
private int ExecuteCommand(string arguments, string passPhrase, int timeout)
{
Process processObject;
ProcessStartInfo pInfo = new ProcessStartInfo(_executablePath, arguments);
pInfo.CreateNoWindow = true;
pInfo.UseShellExecute = false;
pInfo.RedirectStandardInput = true;
pInfo.RedirectStandardOutput = true;
pInfo.RedirectStandardError = true;
processObject = Process.Start(pInfo);
if (!string.IsNullOrEmpty(passPhrase))
{
processObject.StandardInput.WriteLine(passPhrase);
processObject.StandardInput.Flush();
}
string result = processObject.StandardOutput.ReadToEnd();
string error = processObject.StandardError.ReadToEnd();
if (!processObject.WaitForExit(timeout))
{
throw new TimeoutException("GnuPG operation timeout. Waited " + timeout + " milliseconds ");
}
int exitcode = processObject.ExitCode;
Error = error;
Output = result;
return exitcode;
}

There's an apppool setting to make sure it loads the user profile.
loadUserProfile Optional Boolean attribute.
Specifies whether IIS loads the user profile for the application pool identity. Setting
this value to false causes IIS to revert to IIS 6.0 behavior. IIS 6.0 does not load the
user profile for an application pool identity.
The default value is false.
That along with being a domain user as the identity with enough permissions might work?? I know that at a minimum the user will need a user profile.
That said, it's a little bit of an odd architecture. It seems like a better arch would be to have a persistent process like a windows service that the site communicates with but I'm not sure what your constraints are.
Hope that helps.

How to start the bat-file at Asp.net web server side?

I need to call a console application to load data into another desktop application on the remote server that located within the corporate domain.
Users will enter the web page and upload data to asp.net web server, which after transformation should call that console application. Users are located remotely and do not have any other access except the web server.
I decided to lower the security web application context and let the asp.net working process to start the console application on the current IIS 6.0 web server
What I have done:
I changed the security account for the application pool for Local System;
I added ASPNET Account and IIS_WPG IIS Process Account to Administrators group;
I added “Allow service to interact with desctop” for “IIS Admin Service” and “World Wide Web Publishing Service” processes and restarted the machine;
I tried to start BAT-file at server side through the test page code-behind, but failed:
protected void btnStart_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
Process process = new Process();
process.StartInfo.FileName = #”C:\run.bat”;
process.StartInfo.UseShellExecute = false;
process.Start();
process.WaitForExit();
}
The error was access denied.
Please help me to find any workable idea how to start the bat-file at web server side.
Thanks

Try setting UseShellExecute to true instead of false. After all, batch files run in a shell - so you need a shell to execute it. (Another option is to run cmd.exe and pass the name of the batch file in as an argument, e.g. "cmd.exe /k c:\run.bat")
You might also want to try creating a simple .NET app which just (say) creates a file with a timestamp in. That way you can test the "can I start another process" bit separately from the "can I get the batch file to work" bit.

Put that particular batch file in your application itself.
string str_Path = Server.MapPath(".") + "\\run.bat";
ProcessStartInfo processInfo = new ProcessStartInfo(str_Path);
processInfo.UseShellExecute = false;
Process batchProcess = new Process();
batchProcess.StartInfo = processInfo;
batchProcess.Start();

Take a look at this example: Run Interactive Command Shell or Batch Files From ASP.NET
It uses little different approach. They suggest running cmd.exe and executing command line by line.