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This article was contributed by Elmue.
Environment: Windows NT/2000/XP
Description
This demo shows how to create, start, stop, and delete a service under Windows NT/2000/XP.
This program demonstrates the use of these API commands:
- OpenSCManager()
- CloseServiceHandle()
- CreateService()
- OpenService()
- SetServiceStatus()
- DeleteService()
- RegisterServiceCtrlHandler()
- StartServiceCtrlDispatcher()
- LPSERVICE_MAIN_FUNCTION
- LPHANDLER_FUNCTION
Try this demo with an Administrator Account and a normal User or Guest Account! This program logs all commands it receives and executes into the logfile C:\DemoService.txt.
This program is used in two modes:
- Service.exe (without parameters) runs the program with the GUI (see screenshot)
- Service.exe /Service runs it as a Service (Windows calls Service.exe with the “/Service” parameter if the already installed Service is started)
In a Service, it is not possible to set a normal Timer (SetTimer()) because the service does not own a window and can’t receive Window Messages.
For demonstration, I set a waitable timer that writes every five seconds to the log file, even when no user is logged on.
