Windows Service Installer C#

Introduction

In this blog, we are going to discuss how to add an installer to windows service in c#. We will discuss the step by step each and every process to add an installer to windows service.

Getting Started

You do not need to do any special coding to add the installers to make your services install correctly. You may have to follow some steps to associate the installer with your windows service.

You also do not need to do any special coding within the installers to make your services install correctly. However, you may occasionally need to modify the contents of the installers if you need to add special functionality to the installation process.

Steps to add Installer to windows service

1. Open your windows service project in Microsoft visual studio.

2. Expand the “Solution Explorer”, double click on the service file( by default the service file name is “Service1.cs”).

3. The service file will open in the Design view mode.

4. With the designer in focus, right-click, and then click Add Installer. A new class, ProjectInstaller, and two installation components, ServiceProcessInstaller and ServiceInstaller, are added to your project, and property values for the service are copied to the components.

5. Click the ServiceInstaller component and verify that the value of the ServiceName property is set to the same value as the ServiceName property on the service itself.

6. To determine how your service will be started, click the ServiceInstaller component and set the StartType property to the appropriate value.

7. To determine the security context in which your service will run, click the ServiceProcessInstaller component and set the appropriate property values.

8. Override any methods for which you need to perform custom processing.

9. Perform steps 1 through 7 for each additional service in your project.

How Windows service installer works

Visual Studio ships installation components that can install resources associated with your service applications. Installation components register an individual service on the system to which it is being installed and let the Services Control Manager know that the service exists. When you work with a service application, you can select a link in the Properties window to automatically add the appropriate installers to your project.

When you add an installer to your project, a new class (which, by default, is named ProjectInstaller) is created in the project, and instances of the appropriate installation components are created within it.

This class acts as a central point for all of the installation components your project needs. For example, if you add a second service to your application and click the Add Installer link, a second installer class is not created; instead, the necessary additional installation component for the second service is added to the existing class.

You do not need to do any special coding within the installers to make your services install correctly. However, you may occasionally need to modify the contents of the installers if you need to add special functionality to the installation process.

Summary

Service installer in c# helps to insatll the windows service in machine, here we learn how to create msi installer for windows service in c#. Hope you have enjoyed it a lot.

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