Hybrid Windows Service + Console App

[Chris Mullins]

For some reason the question, "Can I make an EXE that is both a Windows
Service and a Console Application?" has come up quite a bit for me over the
last few weeks.

I've been doing this for years, but for some reason I've never seen it
documented anywhere. C# (or VB.Net) is perfectly happy to create an EXE that
can be:
1 - Both a WinForms App or a Windows Service
2 - Both a Console App or a Windows Service

(or, indeed, any combination of the three).

This is typically useful for debugging - it's nice to have a single .EXE
that you can run from the command line (with "-debug"), or start as a
Windows Service. The classic trick of "push the code into a Class and create
two Exe's" always struck me as a bit silly.

I added this, along with the relevant C# souce code, to a blog entry at:
http://www.coversant.com/dotnetnuke/...=88&EntryID=19
--
Chris Mullins MCSD.Net, MCPD Enterprise
http://www.coversant.net/blogs/cmullins

[Barny]

There must be a better way of detecting how an EXE has been invoked rather
than looking at command line arguments.

--
Barny
"Chris Mullins" wrote:

For some reason the question, "Can I make an EXE that is both a Windows
Service and a Console Application?" has come up quite a bit for me over the
last few weeks.

I've been doing this for years, but for some reason I've never seen it
documented anywhere. C# (or VB.Net) is perfectly happy to create an EXE that
can be:
1 - Both a WinForms App or a Windows Service
2 - Both a Console App or a Windows Service

(or, indeed, any combination of the three).

This is typically useful for debugging - it's nice to have a single .EXE
that you can run from the command line (with "-debug"), or start as a
Windows Service. The classic trick of "push the code into a Class and create
two Exe's" always struck me as a bit silly.

I added this, along with the relevant C# souce code, to a blog entry at:
http://www.coversant.com/dotnetnuke/...=88&EntryID=19
--
Chris Mullins MCSD.Net, MCPD Enterprise
http://www.coversant.net/blogs/cmullins

[Croco Stimpy]

I constantly need to write windows services that run with no user logged in,
and then display a console interface IF someone does log in...
The way i've always done it is to write 2 executables. One is the service,
one is the interface.

When user logs in, the interface displays what is happening with the
service, and gives the user control.
When they log out, the service continues to do its job.

There must be a better way.

"Barny" <Ba***@discussions.microsoft.comwrote in message
news:30**********************************@microsof t.com...

There must be a better way of detecting how an EXE has been invoked rather
than looking at command line arguments.

--
Barny
"Chris Mullins" wrote:

>For some reason the question, "Can I make an EXE that is both a Windows
Service and a Console Application?" has come up quite a bit for me over
the
last few weeks.

I've been doing this for years, but for some reason I've never seen it
documented anywhere. C# (or VB.Net) is perfectly happy to create an EXE
that
can be:
1 - Both a WinForms App or a Windows Service
2 - Both a Console App or a Windows Service

(or, indeed, any combination of the three).

This is typically useful for debugging - it's nice to have a single .EXE
that you can run from the command line (with "-debug"), or start as a
Windows Service. The classic trick of "push the code into a Class and
create
two Exe's" always struck me as a bit silly.

I added this, along with the relevant C# souce code, to a blog entry at:
http://www.coversant.com/dotnetnuke/...=88&EntryID=19
--
Chris Mullins MCSD.Net, MCPD Enterprise
http://www.coversant.net/blogs/cmullins