Can a windows sevice have a User interface

  • Thread starter Thread starter Suman
  • Start date Start date
S

Suman

Hello everyone.

Pardon me for my basic questions about windows services..

Is a windows service a stand alone system with no interaction with
outside environment?

Can a windows sevice have an interface which it can use as an output?

Can a windows service take user parameters before/while running?

Thanks for any help.
BS
 
Hello, Suman!
You wrote on 29 Sep 2006 12:22:56 -0700:

S> Hello everyone.

S> Pardon me for my basic questions about windows services..

S> Is a windows service a stand alone system with no interaction with
S> outside environment?

Yes, and no. Windows services can interract with each other and other
application via
any IPC .

S> Can a windows sevice have an interface which it can use as an output?

Yes, if service is interactive then it can create its own window.
But it is not recommended way to display service output. Generally
you develop windows service and ordinary application. This app communicates
with the service via IPC ( socket, named pipes, files, etc ).

S> Can a windows service take user parameters before/while running?
Yes it can.
 
Vadym said:
Hello, Suman!
You wrote on 29 Sep 2006 12:22:56 -0700:

S> Hello everyone.

S> Pardon me for my basic questions about windows services..

S> Is a windows service a stand alone system with no interaction with
S> outside environment?

Yes, and no. Windows services can interract with each other and other
application via
any IPC .

S> Can a windows sevice have an interface which it can use as an output?

Yes, if service is interactive then it can create its own window.
But it is not recommended way to display service output. Generally
you develop windows service and ordinary application. This app communicates
with the service via IPC ( socket, named pipes, files, etc ).
Click to expand...

One caveat is that services can only be interactive if they run under
the Local System account. Also, Microsoft now strongly recommends
against this practice as there are security problems involved.

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/327618/

S> Can a windows service take user parameters before/while running?
Yes it can.
Click to expand...

Part of the service setup includes a set of parameters that are passed
to the service just like command line parameters.

Adam Ruth
 
I usually create a windows service without a user interface (because that's
the standard.)
Then I create a windows forms application that can configure the windows
service via a common configuration file.
The windows app writes to the configuration file and the windows service
reads from it to determine its parameters.
 
Back
Top