How to create an installer for a .net Windows Service using Visual Studio

by

In the service project do the following:

  1. In the solution explorer double click your services .cs file. It should bring up a screen that is all gray and talks about dragging stuff from the toolbox.
  2. Then right click on the gray area and select add installer. This will add an installer project file to your project.
  3. Then you will have 2 components on the design view of the ProjectInstaller.cs (serviceProcessInstaller1 and serviceInstaller1). You should then setup the properties as you need such as service name and user that it should run as.

Now you need to make a setup project. The best thing to do is use the setup wizard.

  1. Right click on your solution and add a new project: Add > New Project > Setup and Deployment Projects > Setup Wizard

    a. This could vary slightly for different versions of Visual Studio.
    b. Visual Studio 2010 it is located in: Install Templates > Other Project Types > Setup and Deployment > Visual Studio Installer

  2. On the second step select “Create a Setup for a Windows Application.”

  3. On the 3rd step, select “Primary output from…”

  4. Click through to Finish.

Next edit your installer to make sure the correct output is included.

  1. Right click on the setup project in your Solution Explorer.
  2. Select View > Custom Actions. (In VS2008 it might be View > Editor > Custom Actions)
  3. Right-click on the Install action in the Custom Actions tree and select ‘Add Custom Action…’
  4. In the “Select Item in Project” dialog, select Application Folder and click OK.
  5. Click OK to select “Primary output from…” option. A new node should be created.
  6. Repeat steps 4 – 5 for commit, rollback and uninstall actions.

You can edit the installer output name by right clicking the Installer project in your solution and select Properties. Change the ‘Output file name:’ to whatever you want. By selecting the installer project as well and looking at the properties windows, you can edit the Product Name, Title, Manufacturer, etc…

Next build your installer and it will produce an MSI and a setup.exe. Choose whichever you want to use to deploy your service.

More Related Contents:

  1. Windows service NOT shown in add remove programs under control panel
  2. Display lines number in Stack Trace for .NET assembly in Release mode
  3. Can’t view designer when coding a form in C#
  4. Detecting USB drive insertion and removal using windows service and c#
  5. How can I run an EXE program from a Windows Service using C#?
  6. Service hangs up at WaitForExit after calling batch file
  7. Install a .NET windows service without InstallUtil.exe
  8. Combining multiple Attributes to a single Attribute – Merge Attributes
  9. Visual Studio build fails: unable to copy exe-file from obj\debug to bin\debug
  10. How can I embed an application manifest into an application using VS2008?
  11. Printing from a .NET Service [closed]
  12. Request.UrlReferrer null?
  13. How to give Read/Write permissions to a Folder during installation using .NET
  14. how to delay shutdown and run a process in window service
  15. Can the C# interactive window interact with my code?
  16. How to create trial version of .NET software? [closed]
  17. Passing command line parameters with Visual Studio C#
  18. System.BadImageFormatException: Reference assemblies should not be loaded for execution [duplicate]
  19. How can we change the background color of all other forms from one form?
  20. Create web service proxy in Visual Studio from a WSDL file
  21. Visual Studio – project shows up as “Miscellaneous Files”
  22. Error 5 : Access Denied when starting windows service
  23. .NET Core include folder in publish
  24. streamWriter rewrite the file or append to the file
  25. Get types used inside a C# method body
  26. Uninstall Custom Action Not Deleting Registry Key
  27. Windows service stops automatically
  28. What’s the best way to watchdog a desktop application?
  29. C# tutorial to write gadgets
  30. what is the maximum time windows service wait to process stop request and how to request for additional time

Leave a Comment