Calling a program in foreground from Windows service

If you right click on your service in the Service Management Console and select Properties, then under the Log On tab, there's an option to 'Allow the service to interact with the desktop'.

However, I'm fairly sure that this no longer works from Vista onwards and that you can't therefore use .NET to create the service. You have to resort to unmanaged code and the CreateService function to create an interactive service and they tell you not to do this in new code anyway:

https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/desktop/ms682450%28v=vs.85%29.aspx

https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/desktop/ms683502(v=vs.85).aspx

If you do need desktop interaction, then perhaps a better idea would be to create a 'hidden' console application rather than a servce. This console application can then launch Notepad directly using the Process class.

1 Reply

Know the answer? Post it — somebody with the same question will find it here.

Vulpes11y ago
If you right click on your service in the Service Management Console and select Properties, then under the Log On tab, there's an option to 'Allow the service to interact with the desktop'.

However, I'm fairly sure that this no longer works from Vista onwards and that you can't therefore use .NET to create the service. You have to resort to unmanaged code and the CreateService function to create an interactive service and they tell you not to do this in new code anyway:

https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/desktop/ms682450%28v=vs.85%29.aspx

https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/desktop/ms683502(v=vs.85).aspx

If you do need desktop interaction, then perhaps a better idea would be to create a 'hidden' console application rather than a servce. This console application can then launch Notepad directly using the Process class.