Creation of Windows Service in Visual Studio 2017

Have you ever wondered how to create a program that runs continuously in the background of your operating system? Windows services are an excellent solution for this kind of problem. Windows services are designed to run without any user intervention, and they perform tasks such as backing up or database polls, and starting up with the system. With Visual Studio 2017, creating Windows services became even more effortless with powerful tools and features available for creating, debugging, and deploying Windows services. Here is a step-by-step guide:

What is a Windows Service?

A Windows service is a program that runs in the background of your operating system without any user intervention. These services are designed to run continuously, even when there is no user logged in, and they have the system-level permissions to access the entire operating system, including hardware resources.

Creating a Windows Service in Visual Studio 2017

Step 1: Open Visual Studio and create a new project

Open Visual Studio 2017 and create a new project. Select “File” menu and then “New Project.” From the list of templates, select “Windows Service”

Step 2: Configure the service name and description

In the “New Project” dialog box, you need to configure the service name, description, and other project settings.

Step 3: Add code to the service

After creating the project, you need to define the logic for your service. You can use the “OnStart” and “OnStop” methods to determine what your service does when it starts and stops. You can add your code to the “Service1.cs” file. Below is an example of a service that writes to the event log when it starts and stops:

<pre>
using System.Diagnostics;
using System.ServiceProcess;

namespace WindowsService1
{
    public partial class Service1 : ServiceBase
    {
        public Service1()
        {
            InitializeComponent();
        }

        protected override void OnStart(string[] args)
        {
            // write to the event log when the service starts
            EventLog.WriteEntry("MyService", "Service started");
        }

        protected override void OnStop()
        {
            // write to the event log when the service stops
            EventLog.WriteEntry("MyService", "Service stopped");
        }
    }
}

Step 4: Install the service

Building the project is the first step to installing and running the service. From Visual Studio, select the “Build” menu and then “Build Solution.” Then install it using the “install util” tool:

1. Open a Command Prompt window with administrative privileges.
2. Navigate to the output folder of your project located in the “bin” folder of your project.
3. Type in “installutil WindowsService1.exe” to install the service.

Note that “WindowsService1.exe” is the name of your executable file. Replace it with the name of your file.

Step 5: Start the service

You can start the service from the “Services” console in Windows:

1. Select the “Start” menu and search for “services.msc” in the search box and press “Enter.”
2. Locate the service you created from the list of services.
3. Right-click on your service and click “Start.”

Your service is now running, and you can view the messages that it writes to the event log in the “Event Viewer” application.

Conclusion

Creating a Windows service in Visual Studio 2017 is easy even for beginners. With the help of powerful tools and features, debugging and deployment of a Windows service became easier than ever. Start exploring the world of Windows services today and develop robust applications with better control over complex tasks!