How can I make Visual Studio 2008 automatically attach to a service when it starts?

Question

I've created a windows service in C (using WinAPI) and I want Visual Studio to automatically attach to the process of the service when I start the service from the Services panel. How can this be achieved. P.S. Putting a MessageBox at the service's initialization function and than manually attaching is no the kind of solution I'm looking for.

Answer 1

I found the solution.Simply add the following key in the registry:

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Image File Execution Options\THE_NAME_OF_YOUR_SERVICE_EXECUTABLE.exe]

And add the following value and data:

"Debugger"="vsjitdebugger.exe"

Note that you'll have to remove this value when you're done testing, otherwise Visual Studio will prompt a message to attach whenever the service is started.

This works under Windows XP x32. I haven't tested on anything else.