The ideal solution to create a windows service with interface in C#

Question

I am creating a simple attendance application that will have a simple interface (with two input boxes and a submit button) and a windows service running in background.

The Idea is to capture login/logout events and calculate hours accordingly. The issue is how to create a windows service which can run on background but also have an interface for users to add their identification?

Thanks

To make sure it starts with windows and is available for all users, and can capture login/logout events ? — GeForce, Sep 16 '13 at 06:12
I would suggest decoupling the UI from the service and then communicating between the UI and the service using some inter-process communication mechanism. Windows Services are not allowed UI other than running in a controlled window which is not user friendly. See here: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/53232/how-can-i-run-a-windows-gui-application-on-as-a-service — acarlon, Sep 16 '13 at 06:15

Kurubaran · Accepted Answer · 2013-09-16T06:40:35.930

0

You don't need a windows service for that. Having a windows service which interact with UI will be complicated task. You can't directly open UI and show it on user desktop from windows service as it will result in security risks.

I would suggest you to create a Windows app and execute it on windows startup. You can easily call your exe on windows startup. Just set your application name and exe path to the following register entry which will be executed on OS startup.

Microsoft.Win32.RegistryKey key = Microsoft.Win32.Registry.CurrentUser.OpenSubKey("SOFTWARE\\Microsoft\\Windows\\CurrentVersion\\Run", true);
key.SetValue("Your Application Name", @"Your application path.exe");

EDIT

Getting the currently logged in user name

string loggedInUser = Environment.UserName;

edited Sep 16 '13 at 06:40

answered Sep 16 '13 at 06:23

Kurubaran

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Windows application will be able to capture login/logout events, and will keep running during login/logout ? – GeForce Sep 16 '13 at 06:28
@GeForce you want to capture Windows Login/Logout times ? – Kurubaran Sep 16 '13 at 06:30
Yes exactly, alongwith user details that has performed login/logout. – GeForce Sep 16 '13 at 06:34
@GeForce You can't get the password but you can get the user name who has logged in. – Kurubaran Sep 16 '13 at 06:39
and the application will keep running even if the user logs out ? – GeForce Sep 16 '13 at 06:48
1

@GeForce no, but the program will be notified of the log out so it can record it before it is closed and a new copy of the program will start when the user logs back in. – Scott Chamberlain Sep 16 '13 at 06:49
You can also use Windows Task Scheduler. Check this link http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/12444-task-scheduler-create-new-task.html – Kurubaran Sep 16 '13 at 06:51

The ideal solution to create a windows service with interface in C#

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