Change service startup type to Delayed (Automatic) in remote machine

Question

I am using the below code to change the service start in a remote server up type to manual/automatic using C#.

public static void ChangeServiceStartupType()
    {

        string query1 = "select * from Win32_Service where name = 'myservice' ";


        string server = "servername";
        ConnectionOptions connectoptions = new ConnectionOptions();

        connectoptions.Username = @"username";
        connectoptions.Password = "password";

        ManagementScope scope = new ManagementScope(@"\\" + server + @"\root\cimv2");
        scope.Options = connectoptions;
        scope.Connect();

        ObjectQuery query = new ObjectQuery(query1);
        ManagementObjectSearcher managementObjectSearcher = new ManagementObjectSearcher(scope, query);
        ManagementObjectCollection managementObjectCollection = managementObjectSearcher.Get();
        foreach (ManagementObject mo in managementObjectSearcher.Get())
        {
            string name = mo.Properties["Name"].Value.ToString().Trim().ToLower();
            string state = mo.Properties["State"].Value.ToString().Trim();
            string startmode = mo.Properties["StartMode"].Value.ToString().Trim();
            changemode(mo, "Automatic");
        }
    }

Here is the changemode method

private static void changemode(ManagementObject mo, string startmode)
    {
        ManagementBaseObject inParams = mo.GetMethodParameters("ChangeStartMode");
        inParams["startmode"] = startmode;
        ManagementBaseObject outParams = mo.InvokeMethod("ChangeStartMode", inParams, null);
        startmode = mo.Properties["StartMode"].Value.ToString().Trim();
    }

When I pass the parameters Manual or Automatic in the changemode(object,startmode parameter) the service start up type changes from automatic to manual and vice-versa. However, I am unable to change it to Automatic(Delayed Start).

I tried Auto-Delayed , Delayed-Auto, Automatic (Delayed Start) How do I achieve this?

score 2 · Answer 1 · answered May 29 '18 at 08:47

If there's a way through ManagementObject than I haven't found it, but it IS possible through the registry:

public void SetDalayedAutoStart(string machineName, string serviceName)
{
    using (var regKey = RegistryKey.OpenRemoteBaseKey(RegistryHive.LocalMachine, machineName))
    {
        using (RegistryKey serviceKey = regKey.OpenSubKey(@"System\CurrentControlSet\Services\" + serviceName, true))
        {
            serviceKey.SetValue("DelayedAutostart", 1, RegistryValueKind.DWord);
        }
    }
}

Note 1: This is only relevant for services with the Automatic start type

Note 2: The new state will be visible in the Services control (services.msc) only after a restart (don't ask me why)

You can enhance the ServiceController class by making this an extension method (assuming you've the permissions to access the remote service) — rodmanb, May 29 '18 at 08:48

score 0 · Answer 2 · answered May 30 '17 at 11:40

Looking at the documentation, it doesn't seem to be possible to make the service start with a delay using the ChangeStartMode Win32 method. Doing what you want is fairly straightforward if you use ServiceInstaller, like so:

myServiceInstaller.StartType = ServiceStartMode.Automatic;
myServiceInstaller.DelayedAutoStart = true;

However I'm guessing that isn't an option, so we will have to dig deeper.

The Service class does have a DelayedAutoStart property, but it is read only. If you want to set it to delayed, you're going to have to mess around with P/Invokes. All information I could find points to ChangeServiceConfig2 and this struct.

Alternatively, you can just execute this command it it will have the same effect. However, it isn't really an answer to your question, just a workaround.

sc.exe config myService start= delayed-auto

Finally, check out this (very) long answer by user Kramii, and this by Peter Kelly. Both of them wrote helper classes to make doing this sort of thing a lot easier. I haven't tested them but they look promising.

thanks @Sty for your inputs. I figured out a way to do it :) — Procrastinating Programmer, May 31 '17 at 14:44

score 0 · Answer 3 · answered May 31 '17 at 14:43

0

Sty's answer lets you set a service to automatic delayed at the time of creation; not post deployment.

There is a command line that can do that

sc \\computername config *servicename* start= delayed-auto

I ran this command line in the remote server using WMI Management Class and it works fine.

More documentation on how to remote start a process here

answered May 31 '17 at 14:43

Procrastinating Programmer

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Actually I included the command option in my answer. Glad you could solve the problem. – stelioslogothetis May 31 '17 at 14:45

Change service startup type to Delayed (Automatic) in remote machine

3 Answers3