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c#windows-servicesservice

How can a Windows Service determine its ServiceName?


I've looked and couldn't find what should be a simple question:

How can a Windows Service determine the ServiceName for which it was started?

I know the installation can hack at the registry and add a command line argument, but logically that seems like it should be unnecessary, hence this question.

I'm hoping to run multiple copies of a single binary more cleanly than the registry hack.

Edit:

This is written in C#. My apps Main() entry point does different things, depending on command line arguments:

  • Install or Uninstall the service. The command line can provide a non-default ServiceName and can change the number of worker threads.
  • Run as a command-line executable (for debugging),
  • Run as a "Windows Service". Here, it creates an instance of my ServiceBase-derived class, then calls System.ServiceProcess.ServiceBase.Run(instance);

Currently, the installation step appends the service name and thread count to the ImagePath in the registry so the app can determine it's ServiceName.


Solution

  • From: https://connect.microsoft.com/VisualStudio/feedback/ViewFeedback.aspx?FeedbackID=387024

    Here is a WMI solution. Overriding the ServiceBase.ServiceMainCallback() might also work, but this seems to work for me...

        protected String GetServiceName()
        {
            // Calling System.ServiceProcess.ServiceBase::ServiceNamea allways returns
            // an empty string,
            // see https://connect.microsoft.com/VisualStudio/feedback/ViewFeedback.aspx?FeedbackID=387024
    
            // So we have to do some more work to find out our service name, this only works if
            // the process contains a single service, if there are more than one services hosted
            // in the process you will have to do something else
    
            int processId = System.Diagnostics.Process.GetCurrentProcess().Id;
            String query = "SELECT * FROM Win32_Service where ProcessId = " + processId;
            System.Management.ManagementObjectSearcher searcher =
                new System.Management.ManagementObjectSearcher(query);
    
            foreach (System.Management.ManagementObject queryObj in searcher.Get()) {
                return queryObj["Name"].ToString();
            }
    
            throw new Exception("Can not get the ServiceName");
        }