Windows services programming tutorial

Windows Services are non-UI software applications that run in the background. Windows services are usually started when an operating system boots and scheduled to run in the background to execute some tasks.

Windows services can also be started automatically or manually. You can also manually pause, stop and restart Windows services. Windows service is a computer program that runs in the background to execute some tasks. Some examples of Windows services are auto-update of Windows, check emails, print documents, SQL Server agent, file and folder scanning and indexing and so on.

If you open your Task Manager and click on the Services tab, you will see hundreds of services running on your machine. You can also see the statuses of these services. Some services are running, some have paused, and some have stopped. You can start, stop, and pause a service from here by right click on the service.

How to create a Windows service in C? Very important: Don't ever try to call any method before the call of InitializeComponent method. LocalSystem; You also can add description and display service name optionally.

Demo" ; Step 8 In this step, we will implement a timer, and code to call the service at a given time. We will create a text file and write the current time in the text file using the service. Generic; using System.

ComponentModel; using System. IntervalMinutes : It is used when Mode is set to Interval. It consist of the Interval value in Minutes after which the Windows Service will perform a task. In other words it is the delay value. ScheduledTime : This setting is used when the Mode is set to Daily. It is used to notify the Windows Service the time it should perform a task.

The value specified is in 24 hour time format. The following code has to be placed in the Service. I am making use of a Timer class belonging to the System. Threading namespace in order to execute the Windows Service periodically at regular intervals and as well as once a day at specific certain time of day. The Timer has a Callback method which gets triggered automatically when the due time is elapsed. We will start with importing the following namespaces.

Imports System. In the case when the scheduled time is passed, it is updated to same time on the next day. Finally the Timer is set to run the scheduled time. Note : While using the above code, you could encounter the following error: The type or namespace name 'ConfigurationManager' does not exist in the namespace 'System.

Configuration' are you missing an assembly reference? The solution is provided in my article The type or namespace name 'ConfigurationManager' does not exist in the namespace 'System. InitializeComponent ;. ScheduleService ;. Dispose ;. AppSettings[ "Mode" ].

ToUpper ;. Parse System. AppSettings[ "ScheduledTime" ] ;. AddDays 1 ;. ToInt32 ConfigurationManager. AppSettings[ "IntervalMinutes" ] ;. AddMinutes intervalMinutes ;. Subtract DateTime. Now ;. Days, timeSpan. Hours, timeSpan. Minutes, timeSpan. Seconds ;. ToInt32 timeSpan. TotalMilliseconds ;. Change dueTime, Timeout. Infinite ;.

StackTrace ;. ServiceController "SimpleService". Stop ;. WriteLine string. Format text, DateTime. Close ;. Public Class Service1. End Sub. Protected Overrides Sub OnStop. Private Schedular As Timer. Public Sub ScheduleService. AppSettings "Mode". Alternatively, services can be configured using the Services node in Server Explorer or with the ServiceController class. Check out our sample Windows Services project on GitHub for examples of timer-based events, queue processing , and job scheduling — some of the more popular uses for Windows Services.

For more information on Windows Services, including helpful Windows Services tutorials and guides, visit the following resources:. Click here to read more about the acquisition. Try Our Free Code Profiler. Try Our Code Profiler. By Role. By Technology. By Language. Documentation Support Ideas Portal Menu. Start Free Trial.

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