Being in the business of creating several Windows Services myself (EventScavenger, Event Collector, QuickMon) I started thinking about how to make the whole install and set up process a bit easier and eliminating the manual steps to install a Windows Service.

So what if you can simply run the service ‘exe’ with a “-install” or “-uninstall” parameter and let it do the work for you? Additionally, what if it it can even prompt you for start up type and user account details during the process – all of this without even using installutil…?

Well after some research, testing, trail and error, losing some more hair and eventually finding a way to make it work I now have a way to do all this. Nice thing is it can be used together with an MSI installer as well or even an external app or script.

ProjectInstaller

The trick is to create a custom ProjectInstaller class (not use the wizards that comes with VS to add installers). I’ve added some properties to this class to specify things like Service name, display name, start up type, account type, user name and password.

[RunInstaller(true)]
public class ProjectInstaller : Installer
{

private ServiceProcessInstaller processInstaller;
private System.ServiceProcess.ServiceInstaller serviceInstaller;

#region Added properties
public string ServiceName
{
get { return serviceInstaller.ServiceName; }
set { serviceInstaller.ServiceName = value; }
}
public string DisplayName
{
get { return serviceInstaller.DisplayName; }
set { serviceInstaller.DisplayName = value; }
}
public string Description
{
get { return serviceInstaller.Description; }
set { serviceInstaller.Description = value; }
}
public ServiceStartMode StartType
{
get { return serviceInstaller.StartType; }
set { serviceInstaller.StartType = value; }
}
public ServiceAccount Account
{
get { return processInstaller.Account; }
set { processInstaller.Account = value; }
}
public string ServiceUsername
{
get { return processInstaller.Username; }
set { processInstaller.Username = value; }
}
public string ServicePassword
{
get { return processInstaller.Password; }
set { processInstaller.Password = value; }
}
#endregion

public ProjectInstaller()
{

processInstaller = new ServiceProcessInstaller();
serviceInstaller = new System.ServiceProcess.ServiceInstaller();

Installers.AddRange(new Installer[] {
processInstaller,
serviceInstaller});

}

protected override void OnBeforeInstall(System.Collections.IDictionary savedState)
{

SetContextParameter(“name”, ServiceName);
SetContextParameter(“display”, DisplayName);
SetContextParameter(“desc”, Description);
SetContextParameter(“start”, StartType.ToString());
SetContextParameter(“account”, Account.ToString());

if (Account == ServiceAccount.User)
{

SetContextParameter(“user”, ServiceUsername);
SetContextParameter(“password”, ServicePassword);

}
base.OnBeforeInstall(savedState);

}

public void SetContextParameter(string key, string value)
{

if (!this.Context.Parameters.ContainsKey(key))

this.Context.Parameters.Add(key, value);

else

this.Context.Parameters[key] = value;

}

}

Calling the Installer/uninstaller

In order to get the service executable to handle the -“install” or “-uninstall” parameters I modified the Main method in Program.cs to accept a string parameter array and then call the appropriate method if either of those two parameters are passed.

Example code:

static class Program
{

static void Main(string[] args)
{

if (args.Length > 0)
{

if (args[0].ToUpper() == “-INSTALL”)
{

InstallService();
return;

}
else if (args[0].ToUpper() == “-UNINSTALL”)
{

UnInstallService();
return;

}

}
ServiceBase[] ServicesToRun;
ServicesToRun = new ServiceBase[] { new SelfInstallService() };
ServiceBase.Run(ServicesToRun);

}

private static bool InstallService()
{

bool success = false;
try
{

string exeFullPath = System.Reflection.Assembly.GetExecutingAssembly().Location;
string workingPath = System.IO.Path.GetDirectoryName(exeFullPath);
string logPath = System.IO.Path.Combine(workingPath, “Install.log”);
ServiceStartMode startmode = ServiceStartMode.Automatic;
ServiceAccount account = ServiceAccount.LocalService;
string username = “”;
string password = “”;

InstallerForm installerForm = new InstallerForm();
installerForm.StartType = ServiceStartMode.Automatic;
installerForm.AccountType = ServiceAccount.User;
if (installerForm.ShowDialog() == System.Windows.Forms.DialogResult.OK)
{

startmode = installerForm.StartType;
account = installerForm.AccountType;
if (installerForm.AccountType == ServiceAccount.User)
{

username = installerForm.UserName;
password = installerForm.Password;

}

}

Hashtable savedState = new Hashtable();
ProjectInstaller myProjectInstaller = new ProjectInstaller();
InstallContext myInstallContext = new InstallContext(logPath, new string[] { });
myProjectInstaller.Context = myInstallContext;
myProjectInstaller.ServiceName = “SelfInstallService”;
myProjectInstaller.DisplayName = “Self Install Service”;
myProjectInstaller.Description = “Self Install Service test”;
myProjectInstaller.StartType = startmode;
myProjectInstaller.Account = account;
if (account == ServiceAccount.User)
{

myProjectInstaller.ServiceUsername = username;
myProjectInstaller.ServicePassword = password;

}
myProjectInstaller.Context.Parameters[“AssemblyPath”] = exeFullPath;

myProjectInstaller.Install(savedState);
success = true;

}
catch (Exception ex)
{

System.Windows.Forms.MessageBox.Show(ex.Message, “Install service”, System.Windows.Forms.MessageBoxButtons.OK, System.Windows.Forms.MessageBoxIcon.Error);

}
return success;

}

private static bool UnInstallService()
{

bool success = false;
try
{

string exeFullPath = System.Reflection.Assembly.GetExecutingAssembly().Location;
string workingPath = System.IO.Path.GetDirectoryName(exeFullPath);
string logPath = System.IO.Path.Combine(workingPath, “Install.log”);

ServiceInstaller myServiceInstaller = new ServiceInstaller();
InstallContext Context = new InstallContext(logPath, null);
myServiceInstaller.Context = Context;
myServiceInstaller.ServiceName = “SelfInstallService”;
myServiceInstaller.Uninstall(null);
success = true;

}
catch (Exception ex)
{

System.Windows.Forms.MessageBox.Show(ex.Message, “Uninstall service”, System.Windows.Forms.MessageBoxButtons.OK, System.Windows.Forms.MessageBoxIcon.Error);

}
return success;

}

}

You might notice I use a custom form ‘InstallerForm’ here which I’m not showing the code for. All it is is a simple Windows Form that allows you to enter or choose some settings that this code is using. I’ll upload some code example a bit later.

Now, you can simple go to the command line (or create a batch file) that calls the service exe with either the “-install” or “-uninstall” parameters.

Update: I’ve added some sample code here. There have been some improvements since the article. It turns out the overridden method OnBeforeInstall is not necessary at all.

In a new blog post I’ve enhanced the functionality to include multi instance functionality. See this.