Starting a Service

Hi,

I am trying to install an application as a service. I have managed to install itself, it can be seen in services.msc. However, for some reason I cannot start the service, GetLastError keeps returning 1053 (ERROR_SERVICE_REQUEST_TIMEOUT The service did not respond to the start or control request in a timely fashion.).

Here is the part that tries to start the service:

Code:

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if(StartService(OpenService(OpenSCManager( 0, 0, SC_MANAGER_CONNECT),"Test Service",SERVICE_ALL_ACCESS),0, NULL) != 0)
        printf("Started Successfully!\n");
else printf("Error->[%d]\n", GetLastError());

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Any tips and help would be appreciated.

Hmm, when I try to activate the service manually via services.msc I get the same return error, so I guess there isnt anything wrong with the code but my system... Maybe because I put calc.exe as filename to test, is that even possible?

of course you cannot start calc.exe as a service - this exe does not have corresponding starting point that the StartService is looking for...

Ah, didnt know that, are executables that run as services different than normal binary files..

Quote:

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are executables that run as services different than normal binary files

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Yes, a console service main function is very basic. It calls StartServiceCtrlDispatcher to connect the main thread of your service to the Service Control Manager. This is accomplished by completing the SERVICE_TABLE_ENTRY structure and calling StartServiceCtrlDispatcher and passing the SERVICE_TABLE_ENTRY structure as a parm. Your stock executables such as calc.exe do not connect to the SCM in this manner at all. Thus, they cannot be run as services.

Ah, that makes sense, thanks.