Programming Tutorials

Creating a Windows Service in VB.net

By: Steven Holzner in VB.net Tutorials on 2009-02-27  

You can create a new Windows service easily in Visual Basic - just use the File-New-Project menu item, select the Windows Service icon in the templates box, and click OK. Here's the code for that Windows service, Service1.vb:

Imports System.ServiceProcess

Public Class Service1
    Inherits System.ServiceProcess.ServiceBase

#Region " Component Designer generated code "

    Public Sub New()
        MyBase.New()

        ' This call is required by the Component Designer.
        InitializeComponent()

        ' Add any initialization after the InitializeComponent() call
        If Not EventLog1.SourceExists("Source1") Then
            EventLog1.CreateEventSource("Source1", "NewLog1")
        End If
        EventLog1.Source = "Source1"

    End Sub

    'UserService overrides dispose to clean up the component list.
    Protected Overloads Overrides Sub Dispose(ByVal disposing As Boolean)
        If disposing Then
            If Not (components Is Nothing) Then
                components.Dispose()
            End If
        End If
        MyBase.Dispose(disposing)
    End Sub

    ' The main entry point for the process
     _
    Shared Sub Main()
        Dim ServicesToRun() As System.ServiceProcess.ServiceBase

        ' More than one NT Service may run within the same process. To add
        ' another service to this process, change the following line to
        ' create a second service object. For example,
        '
        ' ServicesToRun = New System.ServiceProcess.ServiceBase () {New
        ' Service1, New MySecondUserService}
        '
        ServicesToRun = New System.ServiceProcess.ServiceBase () _
            {New Service1}

        System.ServiceProcess.ServiceBase.Run(ServicesToRun)
    End Sub

    'Required by the Component Designer
    Private components As System.ComponentModel.IContainer

    ' NOTE: The following procedure is required by the Component Designer
    ' It can be modified using the Component Designer.
    ' Do not modify it using the code editor.
    Friend WithEvents EventLog1 As System.Diagnostics.EventLog
     Private Sub _
        InitializeComponent()
        Me.EventLog1 = New System.Diagnostics.EventLog()
        CType(Me.EventLog1, _
            System.ComponentModel.ISupportInitialize).BeginInit()
        '
        'EventLog1
        '
        Me.EventLog1.Log = "NewLog1"
        Me.EventLog1.Source = "Source1"
        '
        'Service1
        '
        Me.ServiceName = "Service1"
        CType(Me.EventLog1, _
            System.ComponentModel.ISupportInitialize).EndInit()

    End Sub

#End Region

    Protected Overrides Sub OnStart(ByVal args() As String)
        EventLog1.WriteEntry("Starting...")
    End Sub

    Protected Overrides Sub OnStop()
        EventLog1.WriteEntry("Stopping...")
    End Sub

End Class

Tip: You also can add a notify icon for your Windows service to the taskbar in Windows.