Windows NT Service configuration

To debug current Windows Service configuration, try 'sc' on a command console.

For example 'sc query' pretty much shows the same configuration information as the registry tree which defines Windows services:

My Computer\HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services

There's an interesting Windows Resource Kist that includes service configuration tools.

For example instsrv.exe to run ANY other .exe application as Windows service

C:\Program Files\Windows Resource Kits\Tools>instsrv.exe AAA "C:\Program Files\Windows Resource Kits\Tools\srvany.exe"

The service was successfuly added!

C:\Program Files\Windows Resource Kits\Tools>instsrv.exe AA REMOVE

How to spawn a command shell under windows 'system' user

This trick can be useful if you want to debug user permission issues with a Windows NT service that logs on under "Local System account" (the default).

First, figure out your current system time:

C:\>time

The current time is: 6:15:18.57

Second, use the 'at' command to start an interactive command shell when the next minute starts:

C:\>at 6:16 /interactive cmd

Now inside this new command shell, try your command which is run under this new user.

InstallShield and Windows Services: ServiceExistsService doesn't work

So for me, ServiceExistsService didn't work at all.

There are some permission issues apparently (see http://community.acresso.com/archive/index.php?t-169135.html)

but the solution proposed there is a tad too heavy-weight for me.

Here's an alternative, use the Registry entry of a service to figure out if the service is installed or not:

// Indicates if the service with this key (e.g. myNewService) has been installed

function BOOL windowsServiceExists(serviceKey)

string szKey,szServiceName;

number nRootKey;

begin

nRootKey = HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE;

if (RegDBSetDefaultRoot (nRootKey) <>

MessageBox ("Unable to set HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE.", SEVERE);

return FALSE;

endif;

szKey = "SYSTEM\\CurrentControlSet\\Services\\" + serviceKey;

//MessageBox("Testing for service: " + serviceKey, INFORMATION);

if (RegDBKeyExist (szKey) = 1 )

then

//MessageBox("found service:" + szServiceName, INFORMATION);

return TRUE;

endif;

return FALSE;

end;