Wix Installer starting a service only if it was already running

Question

In the Wix installer, how do I make it so that the installer will only start a service if it was started/running and stopped by the installer during the update process?

EDIT To clarify, I have a service which is a component of my installer which is installed based upon certain parameters. The problem I am having is that if I set , then the service will be started regardless of its state prior to the installation. I would like it so that the service would only start if it was running prior to the running of my wix installer.

you can check condition if installer is installing or updating. refer table in answer from the link for actual conditions. http://stackoverflow.com/a/17608049/3959541 — Chaitanya Gadkari, Jan 28 '16 at 13:12

score 2 · Accepted Answer · answered Jan 28 '16 at 17:50

I think you'd need to do this with custom action code. I know of no built-in functionality in WiX or Windows Installer that can keep track of whether a service was running at the start of the install. So you'd need to interrogate the service state with a custom action and set a property accordingly. At the end of the install (around where the StartServices standard action would be) you can have a custom action to restart that service. I wouldn't use a condition on the ServiceControl action to start the service because that will affect all services you want to start.

score 2 · Answer 2 · answered Jan 28 '16 at 20:03

2

As suggested above you will need to run custom action using c# for example:

ServiceController sc = new ServiceController(SERVICENAME);

switch (sc.Status)
{
    case ServiceControllerStatus.Running:
      return "Running";
    case ServiceControllerStatus.Stopped:
      return "Stopped";
    case ServiceControllerStatus.Paused:
      return "Paused";
    case ServiceControllerStatus.StopPending:
      return "Stopping";
    case ServiceControllerStatus.StartPending:
      return "Starting";
    default:
      return "Status Changing";
}

answered Jan 28 '16 at 20:03

Arkady Sitnitsky

1,846
11
22

Thank you - This is along the lines of what I ended up doing. I was hoping to get away with not using custom actions, but I am checking for which of the services are running prior to the stopservices event, and setting a property in the WiX session which I check later in a separate custom action to start them up again. – dingdangdowney Jan 29 '16 at 15:19

Wix Installer starting a service only if it was already running

2 Answers2