C# 3.0 Cookbook, 3rd Edition

19.2. Controlling a Service

Problem

You need to programmatically manipulate a service that your application interacts with.

Solution

Use the System.ServiceProcess.ServiceController class to control the service. ServiceController allows you to interact with an existing service and to read and change its properties. In the example, it will be used to manipulate the ASP.NET State Service. The name, the service type, and the display name are easily available from the ServiceName, ServiceType, and DisplayName properties:

	ServiceController scStateService = new ServiceController("COM+ Event System");
	Console.WriteLine("Service Name: " + scStateService.ServiceName);
	Console.WriteLine("Service Type: " + scStateService.ServiceType.ToString());
	Console.WriteLine("Display Name: " + scStateService.DisplayName);

The ServiceType enumeration has a number of values, as shown in Table 19-2.

Table 19-2. The ServiceType enumeration values

Value	Description
Adapter	Service that serves a hardware device
FileSystemDriver	Driver for the filesystem (kernel level)
InteractiveProcess	Service that communicates with the desktop
KernelDriver	Low-level hardware device driver
RecognizerDriver	Driver for identifying filesystems on startup
Win32OwnProcess	Win32 program that runs as a service in its own process
Win32ShareProcess	Win32 program that runs as a service in a shared process such as SvcHost

One useful task is to determine a service's dependents. The services that depend on the current service are accessed through the DependentServices ...