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Running an exe file as a servcie

I have an application I am building that a customer wants to run both as a service (without windows, dialogs etc) and, occasionally, as a full blown Windows application with all the bells and whistles.

Their idea is that they can schedule a job to run when the network is quiet but also have the ability, if required, for an admin user to run the program.

Is this possible or do I have to re-write as a service?

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RiteshShah

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Jason Evans

Hi there.
As an alternative, you could load the EXE from the Windows service using AppDomain class. check out the example code I gave. This way, you can run the EXE from the windows service, plus you could run the EXE manually. Alos check out these links:
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/system.appdomain.aspx
http://it.toolbox.com/blogs/programming-life/enter-the-net-appdomain-5595
Cheers.
Jas.

Module Module1
 
    Sub Main()
        Dim newDomain As AppDomain = AppDomain.CreateDomain("MyNewDomain")
 
        newDomain.Load("C:\TheExeToRun.exe")
 
    End Sub
 
End Module

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oobayly

You could create the app as a Console App, which inherits System.ServiceProcess.ServiceBase.
Then, depending on which arguments are passed to the Main(args() as string) method, you can either start it as a service, or as a windows form application

class Foo inherits System.ServiceProcess.ServiceBase
  public shared sub Main(args() as string)
    if (args.length == 0) then
      System.ServiceProcess.ServiceBase.Run(new Foo())
    else
      Application.Run(new Form1())
    end if
  end sub
 
  protected override sub OnStart(args() as string)
  end sub
 
  protected override sub OnStop()
  end sub
end class

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oobayly

Oops, my Vb is a tad rusty

class Foo inherits System.ServiceProcess.ServiceBase
  public shared sub Main(args as string())
    if (args.length = 0) then
      System.ServiceProcess.ServiceBase.Run(new Foo())
    else
      Application.Run(new Form1())
    end if
  end sub
 
  protected override sub OnStart(args as string())
  end sub
 
  protected override sub OnStop()
  end sub
end class

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jindalee

ASKER

I'll have to translate from C# ti VB I guess butthis looks to me to be the best answer