Chapter 1: Creating and Managing Windows Services

Microsoft Exam Objectives Covered In This Chapter:

• Create and manipulate a Windows service.

  • Write code that is executed when a Windows service is started or stopped.

• Implement security for a Windows service.

• Instrument and debug a Windows service.

  • Configure the debugging environment.

• Configure client computers and servers to use a Windows service.

Windows services provide a means for application logic to run continuously on your computer, usually providing device driver or other operating system services. Windows services are useful for server applications that should always be available for clients’ requests. If you are familiar with Microsoft SQL Server 2000, you will notice that it runs as a Windows service. An easy-to-understand example of a Windows service application is the Windows time service, which updates the clock you see on your computer’s taskbar. Until now, it was very difficult to develop this type of application by using Visual Basic. The .NET Framework contains a set of classes that provide the basic functionality for Windows service applications. Now it is easy to make use of these Framework classes and use Visual Basic .NET to implement customized Windows service applications.

In this chapter, you will learn how to use Visual Studio .NET to create a simple Windows service application using the System.ServiceProcess.ServiceBase class. Then you will look at another .NET Framework class, the System.ServiceProcess.ServiceController class, to learn how to create Visual Basic .NET applications that can programmatically control and send custom commands to a Windows service. You will also review some considerations for setting security options and debugging that are specific to Windows services.