Installing Windows Services programmatically

After a few problems with using the ManagedInstallerClass (passing arguments in), and noticing that the MSDN docs say it’s not meant to be used in any case, I moved to using this sort of code instead:

 

   1: using System;

   2: using System.Configuration.Install;

   3: using System.ServiceProcess;

   4: using System.Threading;

   5: using System.Diagnostics;

   6: using System.IO;

   7: using System.Reflection;

   8: using System.Collections.Generic;

   9:  

  10: namespace SimpleWindowsServiceManager

  11: {

  12:     class Program

  13:     {

  14:         static void Main(string[] args)

  15:         {

  16:             string fullpath = args[0];

  17:             string[] arguments = args[1].Split(' ');

  18:             string servicename = Path.GetFileNameWithoutExtension(Path.GetFileName(args[0]));

  19:             foreach (string arg in arguments)

  20:             {

  21:                 if (arg.Contains("name"))

  22:                 {

  23:                     string[] bits = arg.Split(new char[] { '=' });

  24:                     servicename = bits[1];

  25:                 }

  26:             }

  27:  

  28:             #region Test to see if it's a service

  29:             try

  30:             {

  31:                 AssemblyInstaller.CheckIfInstallable(fullpath);

  32:             }

  33:             catch (Exception ex)

  34:             {

  35:                 Console.WriteLine("Assembly's not installable");

  36:                 return;

  37:             }

  38:             #endregion

  39:  

  40:             #region install

  41:             Assembly assembly = null;

  42:             try

  43:             {

  44:                 assembly = Assembly.LoadFrom(fullpath); // LoadFrom probes path for dependencies -- LoadFile does not.

  45:             }

  46:             catch (Exception ex)

  47:             {

  48:                 Console.WriteLine("Couldn't load assembly: " + ex.Message);

  49:                 return;

  50:             }

  51:             AssemblyInstaller installer = new AssemblyInstaller(assembly, null);

  52:             Dictionary state = new Dictionary();

  53:             try

  54:             {

  55:                 installer.Install(state);

  56:                 installer.Rollback(state);

  57:             }

  58:             catch (Exception ex)

  59:             {

  60:                 Console.WriteLine("Trouble pre-installing assembly");

  61:                 return;

  62:             }

  63:             #endregion

  64:  

  65:             installer = new AssemblyInstaller(assembly, arguments);

  66:             state = new Dictionary();

  67:  

  68:             #region Install service

  69:             try

  70:             {

  71:                 installer.Install(state);

  72:             }

  73:             catch (InvalidOperationException iex)

  74:             {

  75:                 Console.WriteLine("Install not applicable for this assembly:\n" + iex.Message);

  76:                 return;

  77:             }

  78:             catch (Exception ex)

  79:             {

  80:                 Console.WriteLine(ex.Message);

  81:             }

  82:             #endregion

  83:  

  84:             Console.WriteLine("Getting service controller for " + servicename);

  85:             ServiceController controller = new ServiceController(servicename);

  86:  

  87:             #region Start service

  88:             try

  89:             {

  90:                 Console.WriteLine("Starting service");

  91:                 controller.Start();

  92:             }

  93:             catch (Exception ex)

  94:             {

  95:                 Console.WriteLine(ex.Message);

  96:             }

  97:             #endregion

  98:  

  99:             Thread.Sleep(10000);

 100:  

 101:             #region Stop service

 102:             try

 103:             {

 104:                 Console.WriteLine("Stopping service");

 105:                 controller.Stop();

 106:             }

 107:             catch (Exception ex)

 108:             {

 109:                 Console.WriteLine(ex.Message);

 110:             }

 111:             #endregion

 112:  

 113:             Thread.Sleep(10000);

 114:  

 115:             #region Uninstall service

 116:             try

 117:             {

 118:                 installer.Uninstall(state);

 119:             }

 120:             catch (Exception ex)

 121:             {

 122:                 Console.WriteLine(ex.Message);

 123:             }

 124:             #endregion

 125:         }

 126:     }

 127: }