Thomas Freudenberg

Is it possible to use this trick to install a Service on a shared server like on WebHost4Life ?

It works the same way installutil does. However, I doubt that WebHost4Life allows its customers to install OS services.

CraigBlog's docs are not quite right for .NET 1.1. I had to do the following:

First, the main checks for args.Length > 1. This should be args.Length > 0.

Next, ti.Context is a property, not a method, so ti.Context(ctx) should be ti.Context = ctx.

Last, it's not clear how to deal with normal service startup in the sample. I added an else to the if (/install) else if (/uninstall) clause where I put my "I'm running as a service" code.

I ran in to the same isues as Charlie with Framework 1.0. I corrected the problems but still could not get the service to install. I'm going back to installing manually.

Once the self installing code is written, can this project be referenced in a setup project (msi)? Is there any special steps to take for creating the MSI?

Sorry, I've never created a MSI package on myself, so I don't know the answer.

But how do you install the service once complete. With installutil?

Pat, that's the trick of Craig's solution: to install the service using command line parameters instead of running installutil.

Anyone have a link to this article? It appears to be dead. Thanks!

You may contact Craig via his blog: http://pluralsight.com/blogs/craig/

using System;
using System.Collections;
using System.Configuration.Install;
using System.ServiceProcess;
using System.ComponentModel;

[RunInstallerAttribute(true)]
public class MyProjectInstaller: Installer{
private ServiceInstaller serviceInstaller1;
private ServiceInstaller serviceInstaller2;
private ServiceProcessInstaller processInstaller;

public MyProjectInstaller(){
// Instantiate installers for process and services.
processInstaller = new ServiceProcessInstaller();
serviceInstaller1 = new ServiceInstaller();
serviceInstaller2 = new ServiceInstaller();

// The services run under the system account.
processInstaller.Account = ServiceAccount.LocalSystem;

// The services are started manually.
serviceInstaller1.StartType = ServiceStartMode.Manual;
serviceInstaller2.StartType = ServiceStartMode.Manual;

// ServiceName must equal those on ServiceBase derived classes.
serviceInstaller1.ServiceName = "Hello-World Service 1";
serviceInstaller2.ServiceName = "Hello-World Service 2";

// Add installers to collection. Order is not important.
Installers.Add(serviceInstaller1);
Installers.Add(serviceInstaller2);
Installers.Add(processInstaller);
}
}

Sorry - when I moved my blog the old links went dead. You can find the article here [1] now. It's a wiki, so if there are any errors, you should feel welcome to fix them. :)

[1] http://pluralsight.com/wiki/default.aspx/Craig/SelfInstallingService.html