Windows Service cannot access Castle Windsor config data in app.config

Question

I use Castle Windsor in a couple of web apps just fine by putting the config data in web.config.

So when I decided to use it in a Windows Service I thought it would be a cinch. My app.config file looks like the following:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8" ?>
<configuration>
  <configSections>
    <section name="castle" type="Castle.Windsor.Configuration.AppDomain.CastleSectionHandler,Castle.Windsor" />
  </configSections>
  ...various other stuff...
  <castle>
    <components>
      ...component listings...
    </components>
  </castle>
</configuration>

I'm creating my container like this:

WindsorContainer windsorContainer = new WindsorContainer(new XmlInterpreter());

But crazily, when the app runs I get

Could not find section 'castle' in the configuration file associated with this domain.
   at Castle.Core.Resource.ConfigResource..ctor(String sectionName)
   at Castle.Core.Resource.ConfigResource..ctor()
   at Castle.Windsor.Configuration.Interpreters.AbstractInterpreter..ctor()
   at Castle.Windsor.Configuration.Interpreters.XmlInterpreter..ctor()
   ...application stack trace...

I'm a bit bamboozled. Anyone got any tips?

Cheers

David

Answer 1

I seem to recall something about app.config files and windows services. Since the application that is actually "running" your service is svchost.exe and that exe exists in %windir%\system32, that is where you config file needs to be. Try placing it there (%windir%\system32) and see what happens.