I have a service which should open an exe application ( C# Application ) based on certain conditions. When the service is started in debugging mode ( Visual studio ) it opens the application. But when it is installed as a service, it does not do so. It fails to open the application. Why is this happening?
What you're trying to do isn't directly possible under normal circumstances - simply launching an app in a new process from your Windows Service code is not going to interact with the GUI of the currently logged in user I'm afraid.
There are ways of communicating between a service and the GUI however.
This discussion might point you in the right direction.
Based on your comments, I think what you are really looking for here is a normal userspace application and a scheduler. You might want to use Windows' own scheduler to run the application every monday, if it is an always-on box, or place the application in Startup. When the application runs, it should check the current day of week, and if it is monday and the application has not previously run this day, the application should start. If not, you can safely terminate the application entirely.
Thanks for the answers! I found out a solution for it and im posting it here.
I created a dummy app which is hidden on startup and it does the exact same function that the service was intended to.
1.create a dummy app (copy paste code from service to form application)
Hide it after start up.
2.start the application right after installation.
3.add registry key so that it starts up after a system reboot.
in simple words, clone service behavior.
Related
I have a Windows Forms Application which runs on a server. I need this Application to always start automatically. Even if the Server just gets restartet and nobody logs into it the Application should run.
So the solutions with Registry don´t work here. I than read into Windows Services but it seems like I can´t start a WinForm Application with it.
Does anyone have an idea how I can achieve this automatic Start on Server startup?
The way we do things like that is that we create a Windows Service which runs without the need to have anyone logged in, and then if there is a need we have a separate GUI application (WinForms in your case) which interacts with the service, when needed.
The communication between the GUI application and the Windows Service is usually done by means of named pipes, but if you can get away with something simpler, like the GUI application saving a configuration file for the service to pick up, you might make it easier for you.
TL;DR: I have a service, a gui, and a tray icon. I want to know how to get the tray icon to run on user login/start-up and be able to stop the service and start the gui
Some Background Info:
I have a windows service I've made that uses a xml file to collect
files from other computers on my network and store them on the local
pc (running the service). the xml has some structures called
'profiles' which have info like FileDestination, LocationToTakeFrom,
FileTypeToTake, and IsProfileActive...
The service basically takes all the active profiles and every hour
scans the location for files created within a 1hr window of the
current date/time on local PC.
My GUI allows the user to make profiles / modify profiles, as
well as determine which profile(s) should be active for collection. I
dont want this gui running at all times, so I plan to have a
systemTrayIcon to allow this GUI to be opened and shutdown.
I'm using Visual Studio 2010 .NET 4.0 everything is in C#, I have 1 solution with separate projects(gui and service)
I'm wondering about the following things as far as the System Tray Icon goes:
1) how do I have the icon start on user login (note that this will be distributed via an installer, not just my personal use. so It has to be done via code)
2) Stop a service via sysTrayIcon
3) where to place the SysTrayIcon... do I make a 3rd project? add it in the GUI project? not quite sure here.
4) if SysTrayIcon IS in a seperate project how can I have it create instances of the GUI?
ie how can I start the GUI application from code in a different project
the project requirements are:
-upon installation the GUI must start, after that the Gui should only be accessed through the tray icon.
-user should be able to stop the service any time via system tray icon
Start the client
There are plenty of ways to start an application on Login under Windows. Just grab SysInternals AutoRuns to get an idea. The obvious ones are (a) the good ol' Startup group and (b) one of the
\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run*
keys under HKCU and/or HKLM. That's the typical task of an setup utility, which makes sense since you have to install the service anyway. To do it in code:
Registry: Open the reg key, add the entry, close the reg key.
Startup: determine the value of CSIDL_STARTUP or CSIDL_COMMON_STARTUP using SHGetFolderPath, then create a Shell Link in that folder.
Service communication & control
The GUI part implements the TrayIcon and communicates through some channnel with your service. Again, there are plenty of possibilities how to do this, like disk files or memory mapped files, named pipes, even sockets. It would be too broad to list all the ways here, so I'd suggest to decide for one way and ask again if you have specific questions on that one.
To stop your service from code, use the ControlService() function and pass SERVICE_CONTROL_STOP as the dwControl parameter. To start a service, there's another function named (big surprise) StartService() to achieve that. Note that you may need to start an elevated copy of your app to control services. A quick & dirty way is to simply launch net start/stop MyService elevated with the necessary args.
I am writing a windows service to process emails on a daily basis. This service includes a App.Config file, which has several parameters for the service to work accordingly.
Every time, the admin user has to go and change / add / delete the pair inside the section using a text editor.
I am planning to include a windows form to load all the pair from the section and thinking of doing any modification through the form.
All I would like to know is whether it's possible to have a winform inside a windows service and open it when ever the configuration needs to be changed? I know we can have a seperated windows application and load the App.Config file of the windows service. I just want to avoid having a seperate app for this.
If you have done something very similar to this, please share your thoughts!
Regards,
Sriram
That sounds like a security issue if nothing else.
A Windows service runs in a different context and account and cannot interact with the desktop unless specifically allowed when installing the service. This is not enough of course so you'd also have to have the service running under the same account that is running the desktop - this in itself is really bad design and not something I would recommend.
You could also have the service executable decide what to do during launch, a common pattern is to have it spawn as a console application when debugging to simplify development. But then you'd have to stop the service and launch the service executable manually interactively to get the UI behaviour.
In any way, a separate configuration tool is the way to go.
I am implementing a file system watcher, my requirement is to watch for a given local folder on a machine and then do a small task (for example open a certain page in web browser). The file(s) in the given directory would be generated randomly sometimes every two hours or four etc. This tool should be automated in the sense that a user does not have to start it. So my question is, Should I implement this in a windows service which always will be running or in a console application.Preference is to do it in a console application but then it would need to started by a user right? Please advice
You can automatically call any type of application (Console, Windows, etc.). What it gets down to with a Windows Service is whether you want it to be running before anyone logs in.
Only a Windows service runs while no one is logged in. A console application (while it can be set to run on login) must have someone log in in order to run.
I have a c# project that prints or take some values from the keyboard to a console application. Can someone tell me how could I start this application from a windows service? I mean..when the computer is turned on I would like to pop up on my desktop the console application in which i can write values and see the result? Need some help. Please print a little code if you have one. Thx!
You just put the shortcut of the application in the Startup folder and it'll work. This is the simplest way, no code change needed
Windows Services usually run non-interactive under a specific system account rather than a desktop user account.
If you want the program to start when a user logs on you can always put a registry key in:
HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Windows\Run
And it will start when a user logs on.