How to create an installer for a .net Windows Service using Visual Studio

Question

In the service project do the following:

1. In the solution explorer double click your services .cs file. It should bring up a screen that is all gray and talks about dragging stuff from the toolbox.
2. Then right click on the gray area and select add installer. This will add an installer project file to your project.
3. Then you will have 2 components on the design view of the ProjectInstaller.cs (serviceProcessInstaller1 and serviceInstaller1). You should then setup the properties as you need such as service name and user that it should run as.

Now you need to make a setup project. The best thing to do is use the setup wizard.

1. Right click on your solution and add a new project: Add > New Project > Setup and Deployment Projects > Setup Wizard

   a. This could vary slightly for different versions of Visual Studio. b. Visual Studio 2010 it is located in: Install Templates > Other Project Types > Setup and Deployment > Visual Studio Installer

2. On the second step select "Create a Setup for a Windows Application."

3. On the 3rd step, select "Primary output from..."

4. Click through to Finish.

Next edit your installer to make sure the correct output is included.

1. Right click on the setup project in your Solution Explorer.
2. Select View > Custom Actions. (In VS2008 it might be View > Editor > Custom Actions)
3. Right-click on the Install action in the Custom Actions tree and select 'Add Custom Action...'
4. In the "Select Item in Project" dialog, select Application Folder and click OK.
5. Click OK to select "Primary output from..." option. A new node should be created.
6. Repeat steps 4 - 5 for commit, rollback and uninstall actions.

You can edit the installer output name by right clicking the Installer project in your solution and select Properties. Change the 'Output file name:' to whatever you want. By selecting the installer project as well and looking at the properties windows, you can edit the Product Name, Title, Manufacturer, etc...

Next build your installer and it will produce an MSI and a setup.exe. Choose whichever you want to use to deploy your service.

I follow Kelsey's first set of steps to add the installer classes to my service project, but instead of creating an MSI or setup.exe installer I make the service self installing/uninstalling. Here's a bit of sample code from one of my services you can use as a starting point.

public static int Main(string[] args)
{
    if (System.Environment.UserInteractive)
    {
        // we only care about the first two characters
        string arg = args[0].ToLowerInvariant().Substring(0, 2);

        switch (arg)
        {
            case "/i":  // install
                return InstallService();

            case "/u":  // uninstall
                return UninstallService();

            default:  // unknown option
                Console.WriteLine("Argument not recognized: {0}", args[0]);
                Console.WriteLine(string.Empty);
                DisplayUsage();
                return 1;
        }
    }
    else
    {
        // run as a standard service as we weren't started by a user
        ServiceBase.Run(new CSMessageQueueService());
    }

    return 0;
}

private static int InstallService()
{
    var service = new MyService();

    try
    {
        // perform specific install steps for our queue service.
        service.InstallService();

        // install the service with the Windows Service Control Manager (SCM)
        ManagedInstallerClass.InstallHelper(new string[] { Assembly.GetExecutingAssembly().Location });
    }
    catch (Exception ex)
    {
        if (ex.InnerException != null && ex.InnerException.GetType() == typeof(Win32Exception))
        {
            Win32Exception wex = (Win32Exception)ex.InnerException;
            Console.WriteLine("Error(0x{0:X}): Service already installed!", wex.ErrorCode);
            return wex.ErrorCode;
        }
        else
        {
            Console.WriteLine(ex.ToString());
            return -1;
        }
    }

    return 0;
}

private static int UninstallService()
{
    var service = new MyQueueService();

    try
    {
        // perform specific uninstall steps for our queue service
        service.UninstallService();

        // uninstall the service from the Windows Service Control Manager (SCM)
        ManagedInstallerClass.InstallHelper(new string[] { "/u", Assembly.GetExecutingAssembly().Location });
    }
    catch (Exception ex)
    {
        if (ex.InnerException.GetType() == typeof(Win32Exception))
        {
            Win32Exception wex = (Win32Exception)ex.InnerException;
            Console.WriteLine("Error(0x{0:X}): Service not installed!", wex.ErrorCode);
            return wex.ErrorCode;
        }
        else
        {
            Console.WriteLine(ex.ToString());
            return -1;
        }
    }

    return 0;
}

Nor Kelsey, nor Brendan solutions does not works for me in Visual Studio 2015 Community.

Here is my brief steps how to create service with installer:

1. Run Visual Studio, Go to File->New->Project
2. Select .NET Framework 4, in 'Search Installed Templates' type 'Service'
3. Select 'Windows Service'. Type Name and Location. Press OK.
4. Double click Service1.cs, right click in designer and select 'Add Installer'
5. Double click ProjectInstaller.cs. For serviceProcessInstaller1 open Properties tab and change 'Account' property value to 'LocalService'. For serviceInstaller1 change 'ServiceName' and set 'StartType' to 'Automatic'.

6. Double click serviceInstaller1. Visual Studio creates serviceInstaller1_AfterInstall event. Write code:

   private void serviceInstaller1_AfterInstall(object sender, InstallEventArgs e)
   {
       using (System.ServiceProcess.ServiceController sc = new 
       System.ServiceProcess.ServiceController(serviceInstaller1.ServiceName))
       {
           sc.Start();
       }
   }
   

7. Build solution. Right click on project and select 'Open Folder in File Explorer'. Go to bin\Debug.

8. Create install.bat with below script:

   :::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
   :: Automatically check & get admin rights
   :::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
   @echo off
   CLS 
   ECHO.
   ECHO =============================
   ECHO Running Admin shell
   ECHO =============================
   
   :checkPrivileges 
   NET FILE 1>NUL 2>NUL
   if '%errorlevel%' == '0' ( goto gotPrivileges ) else ( goto getPrivileges ) 
   
   :getPrivileges 
   if '%1'=='ELEV' (shift & goto gotPrivileges)  
   ECHO. 
   ECHO **************************************
   ECHO Invoking UAC for Privilege Escalation 
   ECHO **************************************
   
   setlocal DisableDelayedExpansion
   set "batchPath=%~0"
   setlocal EnableDelayedExpansion
   ECHO Set UAC = CreateObject^("Shell.Application"^) > "%temp%\OEgetPrivileges.vbs" 
   ECHO UAC.ShellExecute "!batchPath!", "ELEV", "", "runas", 1 >> "%temp%\OEgetPrivileges.vbs" 
   "%temp%\OEgetPrivileges.vbs" 
   exit /B 
   
   :gotPrivileges 
   ::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
   :START
   ::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
   setlocal & pushd .
   
   cd /d %~dp0
   %windir%\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v4.0.30319\InstallUtil /i "WindowsService1.exe"
   pause
   

9. Create uninstall.bat file (change in pen-ult line /i to /u)
10. To install and start service run install.bat, to stop and uninstall run uninstall.bat

For VS2017 you will need to add the "Microsoft Visual Studio 2017 Installer Projects" VS extension. This will give you additional Visual Studio Installer project templates. https://marketplace.visualstudio.com/items?itemName=VisualStudioProductTeam.MicrosoftVisualStudio2017InstallerProjects#overview

To install the windows service you can add a new setup wizard type project and follow the steps from Kelsey's answer https://stackoverflow.com/a/9021107/1040040