Windows service with gui

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I was created a windows service, now I am trying to create a GUI for a service through which i am able to start, stop, restart and pause service. My requirement is "I want to add a form in service,with four buttons."
How to add form in windows service and how to interact between form and service?
Is it possible to add GUI to windows service?

Posted 5-Feb-12 19:15pm

Avinash6474

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4 solutions

Solution 4

As others have mentioned, be cautious when designing an interactive windows service. See this entry in the Windows Services FAQ for a full discussion on the topic:
http://www.coretechnologies.com/WindowsServices/FAQ.html#GUIServices[^]

Posted 6-Feb-12 5:36am

Howard Robinson

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Sergey Alexandrovich Kryukov · Accepted Answer · 2012-02-05T20:19:00

Solution 2

As Abhinav explained, you can not add UI to Windows Service.

What you can do is developing a separate Windows application to interact with your Service. To implement the operations you need, this application should use the class System.ServiceProcess.ServiceController, please see:
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/system.serviceprocess.servicecontroller.aspx[^].

—SA

Posted 5-Feb-12 20:19pm

Sergey Alexandrovich Kryukov

Comments

Abhinav S 6-Feb-12 2:26am

My 5.

Sergey Alexandrovich Kryukov 6-Feb-12 2:30am

Thank you, Abhinav.
--SA

Avinash6474 6-Feb-12 3:08am

Thank you SAKryukov,I did what I want. I added a windows project in same application and write a code on click events. It is working fine.
-Avinash

Sergey Alexandrovich Kryukov 6-Feb-12 3:15am

Great, my congratulations.
And you are very welcome.

Good luck, call again.
--SA

thatraja 6-Feb-12 5:01am

Right, 5!

Sergey Alexandrovich Kryukov 6-Feb-12 9:42am

Thank you, Raja.
--SA

Espen Harlinn 6-Feb-12 6:43am

My 5, usually it's not a good idea to create an interactive service :)

Sergey Alexandrovich Kryukov 6-Feb-12 9:43am

Thank you, Espen.
--SA

BillWoodruff 6-Feb-12 8:14am

+5 Bulls-eye !

Sergey Alexandrovich Kryukov 6-Feb-12 9:43am

Thank you, Bill.
--SA

Espen Harlinn · Accepted Answer · 2012-02-06T00:42:00

By default, services use a noninteractive window station and cannot interact with the user. However, an interactive service can display a user interface and receive user input.

Caution: Services running in an elevated security context, such as the LocalSystem account, should not create a window on the interactive desktop because any other application that is running on the interactive desktop can interact with this window. This exposes the service to any application that a logged-on user executes. Also, services that are running as LocalSystem should not access the interactive desktop by calling the OpenWindowStation or GetThreadDesktop function.

To create an interactive service, do the following when calling the CreateService function:
1.Specify NULL for the lpServiceStartName parameter to run the service in the context of the LocalSystem account.

2.Specify the SERVICE_INTERACTIVE_PROCESS flag.

To determine whether a service is running as an interactive service, call the GetProcessWindowStation function to retrieve a handle to the window station, and the GetUserObjectInformation function to test whether the window station has the WSF_VISIBLE attribute.

However, note that the following registry key contains a value, NoInteractiveServices, that controls the effect of SERVICE_INTERACTIVE_PROCESS:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Windows

The NoInteractiveServices value defaults to 0, which means that services with SERVICE_INTERACTIVE_PROCESS are allowed to run interactively. When NoInteractiveServices is set to a nonzero value, no service started thereafter is allowed to run interactively, regardless of whether it has SERVICE_INTERACTIVE_PROCESS.

Important: All services run in Terminal Services session 0. Therefore, if an interactive service displays a user interface, it is visible only to the user who connected to session 0. Because there is no way to guarantee that the interactive user is connected to session 0, do not configure a service to run as an interactive service under Terminal Services or on a system that supports fast user switching (fast user switching is implemented using Terminal Services).

You need to execute the Application.Run in one thread only.

So it's possible to create an interactive service, but usually not worth the effort.

Best regards
Espen Harlinn

Abhinav S · Accepted Answer · 2012-02-05T19:20:00

Solution 1

It is not possible to add GUI to windows service.
However, you can allow the UI to communicate with the existing service.

You can always add a control to dynamically - so for adding a Windows Form, see here[^].

Posted 5-Feb-12 19:20pm

Abhinav S

Comments

Sergey Alexandrovich Kryukov 6-Feb-12 2:21am

Correct, but this is only the half of required answer, maybe a bit more. OP asked "how to communicate". Last link is almost irrelevant.

So, I voted 4 this time.
Please also see my answer, more complete :-)
--SA

Abhinav S 6-Feb-12 2:26am

Thanks SA.

Avinash6474 6-Feb-12 3:09am

Thank you Abhinav, I got what I want.

-Avinash

Abhinav S 6-Feb-12 5:04am

You are welcome.

thatraja 6-Feb-12 5:01am

5!

Abhinav S 6-Feb-12 5:04am

Thank you.

Espen Harlinn 6-Feb-12 6:44am

My 5, usually it's not a good idea to create an interactive service :)

Abhinav S 6-Feb-12 8:41am

Thanks for the 5.
Yes - an interactive service beats the idea of a service. ;)

Espen Harlinn 6-Feb-12 8:43am

Usually - but it's great for debugging :)

Sergey Alexandrovich Kryukov 6-Feb-12 9:47am

That's why I developed a tiny framework for dual-mode service. You can run the same application as service or as interactive. I avoided 99% of service debugging, as most of the debugging was possible in interactive mode.

Another way is making application assembly very thin and have both service and interactive application based on the same referenced code.
--SA

Espen Harlinn 6-Feb-12 9:50am

I usually pick the last approach :)