C# Best way to schedule recurring task in an efficient windows service

Question

I write a Windows Service in .Net Framework 4.0 and I need to schedule a recurring task inside. New task can only run if previous one is finished, so no tasks in parallel... All my task occurences work on same object (WCF Channel factory). A task takes almost 2 seconds to complete and may be scheduled every 2 seconds or every hour. My constraint is to have this Windows service as invisible/light as possible on memory and processor uses point of view...

I've already found these 2 ways:

• Use a System.Timers.Timer with Autoreset to false => I've to implement an ElapsedEventHandler and pass my shared object (WCF Channel factory)
• Use a never ending loop: not sure of mem/proc use in that state but no threads aspect to take care of.

Any suggestions?

Thanks and have a nice day!

Answer 1

For me was fine following: I'm started timer once, then in Tick method I will schedule next Tick call. Like this:

private Timer _timer;

//Interval in milliseconds
int _interval = 1000;

public void SetTimer()
{   
    // this is System.Threading.Timer, of course
    _timer = new Timer(Tick, null, _interval, Timeout.Infinite);
}

private void Tick(object state)
{
    try
    {
        // Put your code in here
    }   
    finally
    {
        _timer?.Change(_interval, Timeout.Infinite);
    }
}

// dont forget to dispose your timer using await _timer.DisposeAsync(); or _timer.Dispose();