Returning error during service startup

[matt breedlove]

(x-posted to microsoft.public.dotnet.general and
microsoft.public.dotnet.languages.vb)

Hello all.

I am currently creating a Windows Service using VB.NET and would like to
return an error if something goes wrong during startup, IE: parsing a
configuration file.

The only way I know of is to throw an exception, and this will prevent the
service from starting. However it will not display an error message. Using
this method, I get the following:

Could not start the <service name> on Local Computer.
The service did not return an error. This could be an internal
Windows error or an internal service error.
If the problem persists, contact your system administrator.

The error message leads me to believe it is possible to return an error, but
I have not been able to find any documentation as to how to do this.

Any help would be greatly appreciated,

Thanks,
-matt