Adding a description to a .NET Windows Service

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Introduction

Most services keep their configuration information in the registry under the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\ key. This is where the Service Control Manager (SCM) looks to get a list of services installed on a machine, and the Services control panel uses the SCM to list and modify the services. If you look under the key for a service, you'll see several entries, but we're interested in one in particular: the Description value. This is a REG_SZ (string) value, and this is where the SCM looks to get a service's description. We'll now take advantage of this arcane knowledge in the code below (you may download the source by clicking here):

//This code should be inserted into your ProjectInstaller class' code

public override void Install(IDictionary stateServer)
{
  Microsoft.Win32.RegistryKey system,
    //HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Services\CurrentControlSet
    currentControlSet,
    //...\Services
    services,
    //...\<Service Name>
    service,
    //...\Parameters - this is where you can put service-specific configuration
    config; 

  try
  {
    //Let the project installer do its job
    base.Install(stateServer);

    //Open the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM key
    system = Microsoft.Win32.Registry.LocalMachine.OpenSubKey("System");
    //Open CurrentControlSet
    currentControlSet = system.OpenSubKey("CurrentControlSet");
    //Go to the services key
    services = currentControlSet.OpenSubKey("Services");
    //Open the key for your service, and allow writing
    service = services.OpenSubKey(this.serviceInstaller1.ServiceName, true);
    //Add your service's description as a REG_SZ value named "Description"
    service.SetValue("Description", "This is my service's description.");
    //(Optional) Add some custom information your service will use...
    config = service.CreateSubKey("Parameters");
  }
  catch(Exception e)
  {
    Console.WriteLine("An exception was thrown during service installation:\n" + e.ToString());
  }
}

public override void Uninstall(IDictionary stateServer)
{
  Microsoft.Win32.RegistryKey system,
    currentControlSet,
    services,
    service;

  try
  {
    //Drill down to the service key and open it with write permission
    system = Microsoft.Win32.Registry.LocalMachine.OpenSubKey("System");
    currentControlSet = system.OpenSubKey("CurrentControlSet");
    services = currentControlSet.OpenSubKey("Services");
    service = services.OpenSubKey(this.serviceInstaller1.ServiceName, true);
    //Delete any keys you created during installation (or that your service created)
    service.DeleteSubKeyTree("Parameters");
    //...
  }
  catch(Exception e)
  {
    Console.WriteLine("Exception encountered while uninstalling service:\n" + e.ToString());
  }
  finally
  {
    //Let the project installer do its job
    base.Uninstall(stateServer);
  }
}

After you add the above code to your ProjectInstaller class, you should see a description for your service alongside your service's name after your service is installed. In a future article, we'll look at how we can add the description as a custom attribute and extend the ServiceInstaller class to add the description for us automatically.

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