Start & Stop a Windows Service from another Windows Service

Question

I need to control a Windows service (slave) from another one (master) on the same machine (Windows 7 or Server 2008). It's unable to either start or stop the service. What do I need to do to be control the service? The master service is written in C#

UPDATE: The master service is meant to be a sort of watchdog - it monitors an HTTP connection to the slave and restarts the slave if the slave is non-responsive (not returning any HTTP data).

Expose a Stop method on the slave service. or hook the OnStop event method and fire it when you need to stop the service. See also http://stackoverflow.com/q/16317378/102937 — Robert Harvey, Apr 16 '14 at 00:39
Why would you not simply make one service dependant on the other? — Peter Ritchie, Apr 16 '14 at 00:43

score 1 · Answer 1 · answered Apr 16 '14 at 00:56

You can have the master service create a new process that creates a hidden command window with an argument that causes it to call the windows command and start or stop the service. We use this model all the time at my job, the /C will cause the command window to exit as soon as the service finishes changing state.

System.Diagnostics.Process p = new System.Diagnostics.Process ();
System.Diagnostics.ProcessStartInfo psi = new System.Diagnostics.ProcessStartInfo ( "cmd.exe", "/C net [start or stop] [service name]");
psi.WindowStyle = System.Diagnostics.ProcessWindowStyle.Hidden;
p.StartInfo = psi;
P.Start();

You will need to replace the bracketed sections of the command, and sorry if there are any syntax errors I am typing this on my tablet.

score 1 · Answer 2 · answered Aug 19 '18 at 11:42

The best way to handle windows services is to use System.ServiceProcess namespace. Check it on: https://ourcodeworld.com/articles/read/363/how-to-start-stop-and-verify-if-a-service-exists-with-c-in-winforms

But you will have some problems trying that because you will need administrator permissions to turn other services off, so you can handle that by following this link (for debug purposes you can open your VS as admin and everything will work):

How do I force my .NET application to run as administrator?

Start & Stop a Windows Service from another Windows Service

2 Answers2

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