How to create a Windows service with .NET C# and change the StartMode and start it with the installler.

To create a Windows service and a installer you just have to follow the instructions in this article. http://support.microsoft.com/kb/317421

In order to change the StartMode and start the service with the installer I found the following way.

Open your installer file, in my case ProjectInstaller.cs and implement the Committed event, see code below

[RunInstaller(true)]

    public partial class ProjectInstaller : Installer

    {

        public ProjectInstaller()

        {

            InitializeComponent();

        }

        private void ProjectInstaller_Committed(object sender, InstallEventArgs e)

        {

            

            ServiceStartModeUpdate(this.serviceInstaller1.ServiceName, "automatic");

            

            ServiceController sc = new ServiceController( this.serviceInstaller1.ServiceName );

            sc.Start();

        }

        public bool ServiceStartModeUpdate(string serviceName, string startMode)

        {

            uint success = 1;

 

            string filter = String.Format("SELECT * FROM Win32_Service WHERE Name = '{0}'", serviceName);

            ManagementObjectSearcher query = new ManagementObjectSearcher(filter);

            if (query == null) return false;

            ManagementObjectCollection services = query.Get();

            foreach (ManagementObject service in services)

            {

                ManagementBaseObject inParams = service.GetMethodParameters("ChangeStartMode");

                inParams["startmode"] = startMode;

                ManagementBaseObject outParams = service.InvokeMethod("ChangeStartMode", inParams, null);

                success = Convert.ToUInt16(outParams.Properties["ReturnValue"].Value);

            }

            return (success == 0);

        }

    }

I hope you liked this post,

Bart