Develop Reference

Windows, Start service System.InvalidOperationException: Cannot start service on computer '.' Access in Denied(Running as Admin)

I am trying to start service using the below code. This works fine for 99% machines but i get this issue on user machines. Any help to be able to reproduce this error or why this issue happens.
ServiceController sc = new ServiceController(name);
if (sc.Status == ServiceControllerStatus.Running ||
sc.Status == ServiceControllerStatus.StartPending)
{
sc.WaitForStatus(ServiceControllerStatus.Running);
Logger.Info("Service already running");
return true;
}
sc.Start();
Error I receive is
System.InvalidOperationException: Cannot start service on computer
'.'. ---> System.ComponentModel.Win32Exception: Access is denied
I am running with Administrator privileges
When creating the service I also run sc sdset command to make service start stop by non admin processes.

There is a whole thread about it in social msdn. The issue persisted for numerous users and it seems you do not have enough privileges to start the service, in which case you will have to change the service into Administrative account:
make sure that the service is set to Local Account by:
Rightclick on the property(in Services.msc panel).
select the Log on option
And then check again to see if it's working.

I am assuming you are trying to achieve a scenario similar to this, i.e., install a service and start it automatically.
Assuming you have made sure that you are really running as Administrator, i.e., the Admin command prompt or Run As Administrator.
Also, assuming you have restarted the machine to make sure that old version of your service is really removed, as you have tried multiple times to install / uninstall your service.
The error Access is denied essentially means that the user running it does not have access. Since you have said that you are running as Administrator, it is possibly that even Administrator does not have access to start the service. May be you are in a locked down environment (likely via Group Policy), where only the Domain Administrator is the "most powerful" !
The next step would be to investigate the permissions your service has. A useful tool for this is: SubInAcl
https://ss64.com/nt/subinacl.html
Display or modify Access Control Entries (ACEs) for file and folder Permissions, Ownership and Domain.
SubInAcl /service "your service name"
The above command is not easy to use ! You need to download it from the Microsoft web site.
Another useful tool is the SC command. This would normally be available by default.
Service Control - Create, Start, Stop, Query or Delete any Windows SERVICE.
SC sdshow "your service name"
would give details of the permission.
This would give you data which can help in further investigation.
You could also start / stop the service with this command. You can try with this to check whether you are getting the same exception when using this tool as well.
The following serverfault question gives some details about setting permission to a service
https://serverfault.com/questions/187302/how-do-i-grant-start-stop-restart-permissions-on-a-service-to-an-arbitrary-user
If you want to see the Stack trace from installutil you can use the /ShowcallStack option
https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/dotnet/framework/tools/installutil-exe-installer-tool
/ShowCallStack
Outputs the call stack to the log file if an exception occurs at any point during installation.

This is not an answer, it is my further exploration of the question.
Here is the log
Running a transacted installation.
Beginning the Install phase of the installation.
See the contents of the log file for the
D:\devnet10\Flight\Flight.ServiceHost\bin\Debug\flight.servicehost.exe assembly's progress.
The file is located at D:\devnet10\Flight\Flight.ServiceHost\bin\Debug\flight.servicehost.InstallLog.
An exception occurred during the Install phase.
System.InvalidOperationException: An exception occurred in the OnAfterInstall event handler of Flight.ServiceHost.Installation.
at System.Configuration.Install.Installer.Install(IDictionary stateSaver)
at Flight.ServiceHost.Installation.Install(IDictionary stateSaver) in D:\devnet10\Flight\Flight.ServiceHost\Installation.cs:line 36
at System.Configuration.Install.Installer.Install(IDictionary stateSaver)
at System.Configuration.Install.AssemblyInstaller.Install(IDictionary savedState)
at System.Configuration.Install.Installer.Install(IDictionary stateSaver)
at System.Configuration.Install.TransactedInstaller.Install(IDictionary savedState)
The inner exception System.InvalidOperationException was thrown with the following error message: Cannot start service PreFlight on computer '.'..
at System.ServiceProcess.ServiceController.Start(String[] args)
at System.ServiceProcess.ServiceController.Start()
at Flight.ServiceHost.Installation.OnAfterInstall(IDictionary savedState) in D:\devnet10\Flight\Flight.ServiceHost\Installation.cs:line 49
at System.Configuration.Install.Installer.Install(IDictionary stateSaver)
The inner exception System.ComponentModel.Win32Exception was thrown with the following error message: Access is denied.
The Rollback phase of the installation is beginning.
See the contents of the log file for the D:\devnet10\Flight\Flight.ServiceHost\bin\Debug\flight.servicehost.exe assembly's progress.
The file is located at D:\devnet10\Flight\Flight.ServiceHost\bin\Debug\flight.servicehost.InstallLog.
The Rollback phase completed successfully.
The transacted install has completed.
[Update]
I should mention that I am running WIndows 10
I managed to create an installer using an installer project, which does work.

The issue by me was RunningAsLocalService in topshelf, hope this helps someone.

Detecting elevated privileges on Windows Server 2008 or higher

I have an C#, .Net 4.6.1 Windows Forms Application running on Windows Server Platforms (2008 or higher) which requires to be "Run as Administrator". Elevated privileges are required because the application changes User Access Rights on various folders (underneath the IIS Default Web Site Root if that matters).
I have no luck in detecting if the application has been "Run as Administrator". If I start the application normally (that is not as Administrator) the following code
var isAdmin = WindowsIdentity.GetCurrent().Owner.IsWellKnown(WellKnownSidType.BuiltinAdministratorsSid);
returns true but the code which changes some User Access Rights on a Directory fails with a Insufficient Privileges Error.
If I run the application as administrator the above check also returns true, but the changing of User Access rights works just fine.
Other attempts I have made without success:
Using the GetTokenInformation method inside the advapi32.dll as suggested here
Adding a manifest file to the application where I set the requestedExecutionLevel to requireAdministrator
Thanks in advance for any help.

The following must work (I hope so; I have a Windows client and it's working with me).
var Identity = WindowsIdentity.GetCurrent();
var Principal = new WindowsPrincipal(Identity);
bool IsAdmin = Principal.IsInRole(WindowsBuiltInRole.Administrator);

Try to change the permissions of a known folder and if there is an exception then you know the program has not been run as administrator.

Stop/Start service in code in Windows 7

I am trying to write a app and service which monitor a given set of services and a) makes sure they are running and b) based on certain criteria, restart them as needed.
I keep running into an access denied error.
If I simply iterate through the processes on the system, find the one I want like so:
foreach (ServiceController sc in ServiceController.GetServices())
{
if(sc.ServiceName == "MyServiceName")
{
sc.Stop();
sc.WaitForStatus(ServiceControllerStatus.Stopped, new TimeSpan(0, 0, 60));
sc.Start();
}
}
I get:
InnerException: System.InvalidOperationException
Message="Cannot open My Service service on computer '.'."
Source="System.ServiceProcess"
StackTrace:
at System.ServiceProcess.ServiceController.GetServiceHandle(Int32 desiredAccess)
at System.ServiceProcess.ServiceController.Stop()
at lib.ListServices() in D:\lib.cs:line 552
at lib.Init() in D:\lib.cs:line 56
InnerException: System.ComponentModel.Win32Exception
Message="Access is denied"
ErrorCode=-2147467259
NativeErrorCode=5
InnerException:
I have tried to impersonate a user, I have tried to do the same code from another service which is running as a system service. Neither of which have actually been able to affect the service. If its started, I cannot stop it. If its stopped, I cannot start it. I know this is all related to permissions I'm just not finding a mechanism that actually lets me control the service.
Any assistance would be greatly appreciated.

Diagnoses:
UAC is indeed the problem. Your application requires elevated user rights. That is why the "run as administrator" works outside of the IDE.
Some sites suggest disabling UAC. As this is not a possibility in my environment, I decided to request elevated user right via code. Wikipedia provided the help I needed. The "Requesting elevation" section provides the solution.
The solution in short:
Edit your application manifest file to reflect your requirement.
1.1. Right click your project
1.2. Click "Properties"
1.3. Select "Application" tab - default page
1.4. Click "View UAC Settings" - This button opens the application manifest file (app.manifest)
1.5. Look for the "UAC Manifest Options" section
1.6. Remove or comment the current entry - {requestedExecutionLevel level="asInvoker" uiAccess="false"}
1.7. Change to {requestedExecutionLevel level="requireAdministrator" uiAccess="false"}. MS provides your 3 options as part of the section comment.

I think this is UAC fault...
Try to run the exe with right click and "Run as Administrator".
If that helps, you might want to add a Manifest file to your executable project with level="requireAdministrator".

Could it be the .net security policy that is preventing your app from controlling the service?
According to MSDN, your assembly needs full trust for this to work.

You have to set the application to run as administrator. If you look under the files properties menu. On the compatibility tab, there is a Privilige Level option, to let the program run as administrator. It worked with my own system trays in windows 7.

Window Service In C# (ServiceProcessInsaller) -- Error 5: Access is Denied

I am using Visual Studio 2008 and .NetFramework 3.5.
I developed one windows service application in c# using FileSystemWatcher. The main goal of this project is watch an Folder and need to write the modification status in a text file (FolderWatchLog.txt). That text file appeared on another folder.
In ServiceInstaller I specified the StartType=Manual and in ServiceProcessInstaller I specified Account=LocalSystem property.
The issue is, in my pc (Microsoft Windows XP Professional Version 2002 Service Pack 2), I have 2 users. 1 user has ADMIN permission and the 2nd user has LIMITED permission. I developed this applicaion in ADMIN power user and installed (installutil FolderWath.exe). I can start or stop perfectly. But if I logged in the 2nd user (LIMITED permission user), then I CAN'T start or stop the service. I got the error message Could not start the FolderWatch service on LocalComputer. Error 5: Access is Denied. So, I changed the ServiceProcessInstaller Account property. But at that time I got another error in both ADMIN & LIMITED permission users. That error message was FolderWatchLog.txt Access is Denied.
My requirement is this FolderWatch service need to has full access permission for all type of users.

Uninstall Command Fails Only in Release Mode

I'm able to successfully uninstall a third-party application via the command line and via a custom Inno Setup installer.
Command line Execution:
MSIEXEC.exe /x {14D74337-01C2-4F8F-B44B-67FC613E5B1F} /qn
Inno Setup Command:
[Run]
Filename: msiexec.exe; Flags: runhidden waituntilterminated;
Parameters: "/x {{14D74337-01C2-4F8F-B44B-67FC613E5B1F} /qn";
StatusMsg: "Uninstalling Service...";
I am also able to uninstall the application programmatically when executing the following C# code in debug mode.
C# Code:
string fileName = "MSIEXEC.exe";
string arguments = "/x {14D74337-01C2-4F8F-B44B-67FC613E5B1F} /qn";
ProcessStartInfo psi = new ProcessStartInfo(fileName, arguments)
{
CreateNoWindow = true,
UseShellExecute = false,
RedirectStandardOutput = true
};
Process process = Process.Start(psi);
string errorMsg = process.StandardOutput.ReadToEnd();
process.WaitForExit();
The same C# code, however, produces the following failure output when run as a compiled, deployed Windows Service:
"This action is only valid for products that are currently installed."
Additional Comments:
The Windows Service which is issuing
the uninstall command is running on
the same machine as the code being
tested in Debug Mode. The Windows
Service is running/logged on as the
Local system account.
I have consulted my application logs
and I have validated that the
executed command arguments are thhe
same in both debug and release mode.
I have consulted the Event Viewer
but it doesn't offer any clues.
Thoughts? Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

Step 1: Check the MSI error log files
I'm suspicious that your problem is due to running as LocalSystem.
The Local System account is not the same as a normal user account which happens to have admin rights. It has no access to the network, and its interaction with the registry and file system is quite different.
From memory any requests to read/write to your 'home directory' or HKCU under the registry actually go into either the default user profile, or in the case of temp dirs, c:\windows\temp

I've come across similar problems in the past with installation, a customer was using the SYSTEM account to install and this was causing all sorts of permission problems for non-administrative users.
MSI log files aren't really going to help if the application doesn't appear "installed", I'd suggest starting with capturing the output of MSIINV.EXE under the system account, that will get you an "Inventory" of the currently installed programs (or what that user sees installed) http://blogs.msdn.com/brada/archive/2005/06/24/432209.aspx
I think you probably need to go back to the drawing board and see if you really need the windows service to do the uninstall. You'll probably come across all sorts of Vista UAC issues if you haven't already...

Thanks to those offering help. This appears to be a permissions issue. I have updated my service to run under an Administrator account and it was able to successfully uninstall the third-party application. To Orion's point, though the Local System account is a powerful account that has full access to the system -- http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc782435.aspx -- it doesn't seem to have the necessary rights to perform the uninstall.
[See additional comments for full story regarding the LocalSystem being able to uninstall application for which it installed.]

This is bizarre. LocalSystem definitely has the privileges to install applications (that's how Windows Update and software deployment in Active Directory work), so it should be able to uninstall as well.
Perhaps the application is initially installed per-user instead of per-machine?

#Paul Lalonde
The app's installer is wrapped within a custom InnoSetup Installer. The InnoSetup installer, in turn, is manually executed by the logged in user. That said, the uninstall is trigged by a service running under the Local System account.
Apparently, you were on to something. I put together a quick test which had the service running under the LocalSystem account install as well as uninstall the application and everything worked flawlessly. You were correct. The LocalSystem account has required uninstall permissions for applications in which it installs. You saved the day. Thanks for the feedback!