Running a Windows Service as a Console Application

Posted on May 18, 2012 • 2 minutes • 402 words

Table of contents

Introduction
Steps
Key Things

Edit: Nowadays I would recommend TopShelf . It provides a simple framework for a Windows Service that’s easy to debug, install, uninstall, etc.

Introduction

If you have ever built a Windows Service then trying to debug it can be a problem, having to attach the debugger to a running process is not ideal and I like having the ability to just click “play”.

Therefore, with a few changes to a Windows Service, it can be set to run as a console application within Visual Studio for debugging but is actually a Windows Service.

For this to work I am assuming a single service within the same process, if multiple services exist then a different solution will be needed

Steps

Change the Application type in the Project properties to a “Console Application” and the Startup object to “Sub Main”.

Console Application

Search the project for “Sub Main” - it is within the main Service1.Designer.vb file.

The automatic created code should look like this

' The main entry point for the process
<MTAThread()> \_
<System.Diagnostics.DebuggerNonUserCode()> \_
Shared Sub Main()
    Dim ServicesToRun() As System.ServiceProcess.ServiceBase

    ' More than one NT Service may run within the same process. To add
    ' another service to this process, change the following line to
    ' create a second service object. For example,
    '
    '   ServicesToRun = New System.ServiceProcess.ServiceBase () {New Service1, New MySecondUserService}
    '
    ServicesToRun = New System.ServiceProcess.ServiceBase() {New Service1}

    System.ServiceProcess.ServiceBase.Run(ServicesToRun)
End Sub

Now this needs editing to create the single service object, then start it. For example:

' The main entry point for the process
<MTAThread()> \_
<System.Diagnostics.DebuggerNonUserCode()> \_
Shared Sub Main()

    Dim serviceToRun As Service1 = New Service1

    If Environment.UserInteractive Then

        serviceToRun.OnStart(Nothing)
        Console.WriteLine("Press any key to stop the service")
        Console.Read()
        serviceToRun.OnStop()

    Else

        ServiceBase.Run(serviceToRun)

    End If

End Sub

Key Things

In the modified code I am doing a few key things:

Creating the single service:

Dim serviceToRun As Service1 = New Service1

in place of the line below that creates an array with one instance:

ServicesToRun = New System.ServiceProcess.ServiceBase() {New Service1}

Added an if statement based on “Environment.UserInteractive” that will be true for when running in Visual Studio.
```
If Environment.UserInteractive Then
```
If it’s within Visual Studio then the code just starts the service by calling the start sub and then waiting until a Console input.
```
serviceToRun.OnStart(Nothing)
Console.WriteLine("Press any key to stop the service")
Console.Read()
serviceToRun.OnStop()
```
If not within Visual Studio then it runs the original code to run the service:
```
ServiceBase.Run(serviceToRun)
```