Debugging Windows Services

Hey Guys!

This post is some info. about windows services. There are lot of blog posts/tutorials floating around in the web that deals with creation of windows services. But this post deals with the methods to debug a windows service. After you start your service you can attach it to a debugger, so that you can debug a windows service! Conventionally it wouldn't be possible to debug a windows service by pressing F5, as you would have known. This is because services are run from the context of a services control manager.

Now let me stop these stories and get directly in to reality!!

In a nutshell, these are the steps to be followed:

* Develop the service
* Start the service
- Start / Control Panel / Administrative Services / Computer Management
- Click on Services and Applications / Services
- Scroll to your service
- Start it (Right click - start)
* Open your project for this service in VS.Net
* Set breakpoints (Obviously you cannot debug the onStart method or the Main method!)
* Choose Debug -> Processes
* Choose the windows service in the list of "Available Processes"
* Click on "Attach"

There you go!! Hope this helps somebody!!!

Want a "professional" view of the same? Refer to,

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/7a50syb3(VS.80).aspx

Happy coding :)