Visual Studio Installer Projects Extension - Install a Service

Question

I'm using the Visual Studio Installer Projects Extension to create a .msi for my project.

The installer seems to work ok for the most part, but it won't kick off my service after install and I have to run MyService.exe manually.

Is there a way to do this? Or could I inject some custom installer code somewhere?

You mean MSI is getting installed successfully but the service doesn't get started always? or sometimes it fails to start ? — Kurubaran, Dec 09 '14 at 21:24
So the extension creates all the install folders and copies the required files which is great. It doesn't however register my service (not listed under services.msc). I've now created a service installer class, but not sure how if at all I can use that with the extension — rocklobster, Dec 10 '14 at 00:56
Thats the right way to go. you should create a service installer class and add the project where the class resides as primary out put to the installer project then add the primary output to custom actions.(install/commit/uninstall) — Kurubaran, Dec 10 '14 at 08:06

Christopher Painter · Answer 1 · 2018-09-08T13:11:14.657

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Viusal Studio Installer projects don't expose Windows Installer's underlying ServiceInstall / ServiceControl tables. This forces developers to reinvent the wheel using custom actions resulting in fragile installers.

Windows Installer XML can author merge modules that properly implement ServiceInstall / Service Control. You can then reference that merge module into your Visual Studio Installer to accomplish the task with breaking best practices. A discussion of this can be found here:

Augmenting InstallShield using Windows Installer XML - Windows Services

Redemption of Visual Studio Deployment Projects

IsWiX Tutorials - How to author a Windows Service using WiX / IsWiX

edited Sep 08 '18 at 13:11

answered Dec 09 '14 at 14:25

Christopher Painter

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Gathering up some [limitations of Visual Studio Installer projects](https://stackoverflow.com/a/47944893/129130). Heresy that redemption piece of yours :-). Plus one. – Stein Åsmul Sep 08 '18 at 13:18
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I wasted a year of my life that I'll never get back working with that crappy tool. – Christopher Painter Sep 08 '18 at 14:25
"File-pushers-anonymous". That would be us? [Chicks dig it](https://twitter.com/glytzhkof/status/1011193027585564672)! – Stein Åsmul Sep 09 '18 at 06:55

score 0 · Answer 2 · answered Dec 09 '14 at 07:35

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Microsoft has described the process of creating a service installer in this MSDN article: How to: Add Installers to Your Service Application

answered Dec 09 '14 at 07:35

Oliver Ulm

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Ok cool thanks. So will that build an installer when i build the entire project? – rocklobster Dec 09 '14 at 08:12

score 0 · Answer 3 · answered Dec 09 '14 at 17:32

See if this helps:

http://www.installsite.org/pages/en/msi/tips.htm

Scroll down to Installing Services with Visual Studio.

It's a tool for adding the ServiceInstall/ServiceControl features to a VS setup. I haven't updated it for a while but all the source is there.

Visual Studio Installer Projects Extension - Install a Service

3 Answers3