ServiceOnset - A light and FREE service wrapper

ServiceOnset is an exciting utility to help you to run one or more programs as single windows service. Is it cool? The most typical usage is for Node.js, COW, regular jobs and so on.
ServiceOnset is a wrapper program implemented as a windows service. So it enables some of foreground applications started before login.
Known Issue #7. ServiceOnset currently CANNOT support an UI-based program because of the session 0 isolation problem on Win2008 or above. Only added Interop.cs as a preparation for further enhancement.

Prerequisites

Windows operation with Microsoft .NET Framework 4.5.2

Installation

• Clone and build the solution with VisualStudio, or DOWNLOAD the binary package directly.

log4net.config
log4net.dll
ServiceOnset.exe
ServiceOnset.exe.json

• Start a command line with Administrator privilege.
• Navigate to the directory of the binary package.
• Run C:\Windows\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v4.0.30319\InstallUtil.exe ServiceOnset.exe to install the service.
• Optional. If you got an error like below (Issue #3), please right-click ServiceOnset.exe file and click Unblock button in the program's property window.

Exception occurred while initializing the installation:
System.IO.FileLoadException: Could not load file or assembly '...\ServiceOnset.exe' or one of its dependencies. Operation is not supported. (Exception from HRESULT: 0x80131515).

• Change the config of ServiceOnset as you want. Refer to ServiceOnset.exe.json
• Optional. Change the config of log4net if you want assign a dedicated logger for a service. Refer to log4net Config

<logger name="{YourService}" additivity="false">
    <appender-ref ref="{YourService}Appender" />
</logger>
<appender name="{YourService}Appender" type="log4net.Appender.RollingFileAppender">
    <param name="File" value="logs/{YourService}/log" />
    <param name="Encoding" value="utf-8" />
    <param name="AppendToFile" value="true" />
    <param name="RollingStyle" value="Date" />
    <param name="DatePattern" value="yyyyMM&quot;.txt&quot;" />
    <layout type="log4net.Layout.PatternLayout">
        <param name="ConversionPattern" value="%date [%thread] %-5level %logger [%property{NDC}] - %message%newline" />
    </layout>
</appender>

• Optional. If you are trying to launch a desktop-related program, you may need to create these 2 folders.

C:\Windows\SysWOW64\config\systemprofile\Desktop
C:\Windows\System32\config\systemprofile\Desktop

• Open windows services manager and start ServiceOnset service. Or directly execute net start ServiceOnset.
• Enjoy ~

Uninstallation

1. Stop the service net stop ServiceOnset if it is running.
2. Start a command line with Administrator privilege.
3. Navigate to the directory of the binary package.
4. Run C:\Windows\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v4.0.30319\InstallUtil.exe /u ServiceOnset.exe to remove the service.
5. Clean up the directory.

ServiceOnset.exe.json

Sample

{
  "enableLog": true,
  "services": [
    {
      "disable": false,
      "name": "Ping-Baidu",
      "desc": "Termly PING www.baidu.com",
      "command": "ping",
      "arguments": "www.baidu.com",
      "workingDirectory": "",
      "runMode": "interval",
      "intervalInSeconds": 30,
      "timingExp": "00",
      "useShellExecute": false,
      "hideWindow": false,
      "killExistingProcess": false,
      "enableLog": true
    }
  ]
}

References

Property	Value type	Required	Default	Description
enableLog	bool		false	Determinate if generate logs by log4net.
services	array	Yes	(empty)	Program definitions hosted by ServiceOnset.
disable	bool		false	Determinate if the service is enabled.
name	string	Yes		Program identifier, must be same to the corresponding logger name.
desc	string			Service description.
command	string	Yes		Command (with full path, relative path (Issue #5) or Windows ENV path). eg.: ping.
arguments	string		""	Command arguments. eg.: www.baidu.com.
workingDirectory	string		Command path, or ServiceOnset path	It represents the startup path of the command. eg.: D:\\ServiceOnset\\.
runMode	enum		"daemon"	"daemon": Auto-restart the program if it exited. "launch": Launch the program once and let it be. "interval": Restart the program termly by force kill the running process. "timing": Check current time per 60 seconds, run the program when matching with timingExp.
intervalInSeconds	int		30	Detecting interval in seconds for current run mode.
timingExp	string		"00"	Expression format: MMddHHmm. eg.: 01022300 - run at 23:00 on Jan 2nd of every year; 101330 - run at 13:30 on the 10th day of every month; 2205 - run at 22:05 of every day; 15 - run at the 15th minute of every hour.
useShellExecute	bool		false	Start a process by UseShellExecute. Will omit the standard output of a console when the value is true.
hideWindow	bool		false	Try to hide the window of the command.
killExistingProcess	bool		false	If true, will try to kill the existing process whose file name equals [Command] when initializing the service entry. Here any error will be ignored except logging.

Case sample for COW

1. Make sure cow.exe or cow-hide.exe or cow-taskbar.exe with rc.txt can work.
2. Extract ServiceOnset binary package to COW directory. And config like this:

{
  "enableLog": true,
  "services": [
    {
      "name": "COW-Proxy",
      "command": "cow"
    }
  ]
}

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