Wix: Stopping a Windows Service on uninstall

Question

When I uninstall my service I get the error where it says I have to stop such and such service before uninstalling. This is unsatisfactory - the uninstaller should automatically stop it.

I found a blog or newsgroup posting on this months ago and got it to work properly, but now it has stopped working for me. And I don't have a link to the post... maybe someone else know where it is? :) I guess I changed some subtle thing and it stopped working. I find Wix extremely difficult to troubleshoot.

I am using the following include to fetch the property X_ WIN_ SERVICE_ NAME (sorry I don't know how to avoid _ escaping here) from the registry. It doesn't matter on install because in that case I explicitly set it with an input file. This include is used before any components in my wxs file.

<Include xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/wix/2006/wi">

<?ifndef SetupXWinServiceRegistryProperties ?>
<?define SetupXWinServiceRegistryProperties ?>

<?define XWinServiceRegistryKey='Software\X\Y'?>

<Property Id="X_WIN_SERVICE_NAME">
  <RegistrySearch Id="XWinServiceNameSearch"
                    Root="HKLM"
                    Key="$(var.XWinServiceRegistryKey)"
                    Name="ServiceName"
                    Type="raw"/>
</Property>

<?endif?>
</Include>

The following include component is used to save the registry value on install:

<Include xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/wix/2006/wi">

<?ifndef WriteXWinServiceRegistryProperties ?>
<?define WriteXWinServiceRegistryProperties ?>

<Component Id="CompWriteXWinServiceRegistryProps"
  Guid="some guid">

<!-- Write properties to the registry. Then they will be 
       accessable during uninstall. -->

<RegistryValue Root="HKLM"
   Key="$(var.XWinServiceRegistryKey)"
   Name="ServiceName"
   Type="string"
   Value="[X_WIN_SERVICE_NAME]"
   Action="write" />

</Component>

<?endif?>

</Include>

I have checked my system after install and the registry value is properly written there. The part in my component where the service is setup looks like:

          <ServiceInstall Id="ServiceInstallXWinService"
                          Name="[X_WIN_SERVICE_NAME]"
                          Start="auto"
                          DisplayName="xxx"
                          Description="yyy"
                          Account="[X_WIN_SERVICE_USER]"
                          Password="[X_WIN_SERVICE_PASSWORD]"
                          Type="ownProcess"
                          ErrorControl="normal"
                          Vital="yes" />

          <ServiceControl Id="ServiceInstallXWinService" 
                          Name="[X_WIN_SERVICE_NAME]"
                          Stop="both"
                          Remove="uninstall"
                          Wait="yes" />

Any ideas?

Answer 1

Are you sure that the X_WIN_SERVICE_NAME property is set to the correct value on uninstall. Use a verbose log file to make sure that the search is setting the value correctly. Everything looks fine (although I don't know why you put everything in Include files instead of just using Fragments).