WCF Service vs Windows Service

Question

I’m writing a service that will be used only within an internal network. I will be accessing this from a mobile client using the compact framework (3.5). I’m new to WCF – will this provide me with anything that I won’t get from creating a standard windows service? Are there any disadvantages to using WCF in this environment?

Answer 1

Why not use a WCF service hosted in a Windows Service?

These are different things. A Windows Service is a process and a WCF Service is a handler/implementor of protocol and functionality.

EDIT Sorry if I sounded too blunt. You might host a WCF service in a Windows host but you could also host it in IIS/WAS or any other .NET application. With IIS/WAS you get a lot of extras such as authentication, process recycling etc.

With WCF you can implement very interopable REST/JSON services but you can also pick very advanced stuff like WS-* features.

Look them up.