Is it good to have windows service or console application?

Question

I have a tasks table in my db. I want to read data from this table and run tasks. Which one is better whether to have it as windows service or a console application running. The server on which this will be run will not be shutdown

Answer 1

You most likely want to use a windows service.

Benefits:

• You can control the user (and the rights associated with this user account) which starts the process
• An automatically started process means the desktop need to be on, not user logged, for the service to run
• A policy on failure can be defined (try to restart n times run a specific program if fails)
• A dependency can be defined (if you depend on other sevices)
• You can wrap your script in an invisible window
• You can easily start/stop/restart the script (net start <scriptname>)

Quoted from here: What is the benefit of developing the application as a windows service?

Answer 2

A running console app is not an option, as the others have stated.

If you just want the task run every x minutes the simplest option is a scheduled task using a console application.

A windows service has it's benefits, but is a little bit more complex to implement and deploy. However if your app needs to be 'always on' (e.g. need to react to external triggers, listen to message queue, ...), a windows service is the only option. As the others have said, the services infrastructure also provides more management capabilities, built-in integration with the event log, restart and failover options...