Windows Service GUI Home

Welcome to the WindowsServiceGUI Documentation

The WindowsServiceGUI helps you to develop, debug and test c# based windows services.

All you have do is, to add a single .NET assembly to you project. If the servicerunner.dll is included in your windows service project you can debug and start your service like a normal application. If the service is started as a windows service, no GUI is displayed or executed. The service behaves like normal and is started and stopped by the system.

WindowsServiceGUI detects automatically if the application is started as a service or as application. If started under a debugger or as a normal application a windows-gui is displayed which allows to simulate the 'Start' and 'Stop' methods of a windows service. Simply click the 'Start' or 'Stop' Button. The application-dialog consists of a log window, which makes it possible to display logmessages from every point in the code.

Reasons to use such a solution for developing windows services.

• no need to stop a running service, during compile and update. => start, debug and exit the service like any other application
• pure console output is not appealing to everyone, especially under windows. => direct log-output in a window (Copy and Paste as from any other application)
• give it to others, which can test the service, without need to install a service => just start the service, like a normal application => install it, when the service is tested and everything works as it should !

HowTo:

1. Add assembly to the windows service project

2. Update the Program.cs file in your service-project

using DigaSystem.ServiceRunner;

namespace ServiceRunnerTest
{
    static class Program
    {
        /// <summary>
        /// The main entry point for the application.
        /// </summary>
        static void Main(string[] args)        {
            ServiceBaseEx[] ServicesToRun;
            ServicesToRun = new ServiceBaseEx[]
            {
                new TestService()
            };

            if (ServiceRunner.RunningAsService)
            {
                ServicesToRun.LoadServices();
            }
            else
            {
                ServicesToRun.StartServices();
            }
        }
    }
}

3. Inherit the main service class from ServiceBaseEx instead of ServiceBase

using DigaSystem.ServiceRunner;

namespace ServiceRunnerTest
{
    public partial class TestService : ServiceBaseEx
    {
        public TestService()
        {
            InitializeComponent();
        }

        protected override void OnStart(string[] args)
        {
            LogMessage("Successfully started Test Service !");
        }

        protected override void OnStop()
        {
            LogMessage("Successfully stopped Test Service !");
        }   
     }
}

4. LogMessages

LogMessage(string msg) is a static function of the ServiceBaseEx, so you can call it in your service class directly or anywhere in your code like:

ServiceBaseEx.LogMessage(string msg);

5. Install / Uninstall / RunAs Administrator

RunAs:

The GUI is able to install the windows service. If the application is not started as Administrator, you need to restart as Administrator, because this is necessary for installing a service. This can be easily done with the menu-function 'Run as Administrator'.

Install:

To install the application as service, you need to enter the necessary information. This can be accomplished with the following dialog.

Uninstall:

you can uninstall the service via the 'uninstall' feature. The following dialog is displayed. The application remembers the servicename on successfull installation, so you don't need to enter it again !

6. System Requirements

• The projects are compiled with Visual Studio 2017
• The ServiceRunner projects runs on .NET 4.5
• The Assembly has no additional dependencies
• The TestService is set to .NET 4.6.2, but runs also with 4.5
• The project is inspired by Anderson Imes - ServiceProcess.Helpers