ServiceInstaller

ServiceInstaller is a composable Windows Service Control Manager library with a terminal CLI. It can create, configure, query, start, stop, pause, continue, and delete services on the local computer or a remote Windows computer.

The executable you register must already implement the Windows Service hosting contract, for example with Microsoft.Extensions.Hosting.WindowsServices. Registering an ordinary console program does not turn it into a service.

Packages

dotnet add package ServiceInstaller
dotnet tool install --global ServiceInstaller.Cli

Creating, changing, and deleting services normally requires an elevated terminal. Remote control also requires Service Control Manager access on the target computer.

Terminal CLI

serviceinstaller create --name SampleService --display-name "Sample Service" --binary "C:\Services\Sample.exe" --description "Example worker" --start-mode automatic --start -- --service
serviceinstaller configure --name SampleService --binary "C:\Services\Sample.exe" --start-mode manual -- --service --reconfigured
serviceinstaller status --name SampleService
serviceinstaller status --name SampleService --json
serviceinstaller exists --name SampleService
serviceinstaller start --name SampleService --timeout 45 -- runtime-argument
serviceinstaller pause --name SampleService
serviceinstaller continue --name SampleService
serviceinstaller stop --name SampleService
serviceinstaller delete --name SampleService

Use --machine SERVER01 with any command to target a remote computer. install, query, resume, and uninstall are aliases for create with immediate start, status, continue, and delete respectively.

Account passwords are accepted only through standard input:

$password | serviceinstaller create --name SampleService --display-name "Sample Service" --binary "C:\Services\Sample.exe" --account ".\ServiceUser" --password-stdin

The process returns stable exit codes: 0 for success, 2 for invalid arguments, 3 for an operation failure, and 4 for an unsupported platform or access denial.

Library API

using ServiceInstaller;
using ServiceInstaller.Enums;

IServiceManager services = new WindowsServiceManager();

services.Create(new ServiceDefinition(
    "SampleService",
    "Sample Service",
    @"C:\Services\Sample.exe")
{
    Arguments = ["--service"],
    Description = "Example worker",
    StartMode = ServiceStartMode.Automatic,
    Dependencies = ["RpcSs"],
});

var running = services.Start("SampleService", TimeSpan.FromSeconds(30));
var snapshot = services.Query("SampleService");

services.Configure("SampleService", new ServiceUpdate
{
    DisplayName = "Updated Sample Service",
    Description = "Updated description",
    ChangeDescription = true,
    StartMode = ServiceStartMode.Manual,
});

services.Stop("SampleService", TimeSpan.FromSeconds(30));
services.Delete("SampleService", TimeSpan.FromSeconds(30));

WindowsServiceManager owns native handles safely and exposes its operating-system boundary through composition, allowing service lifecycle behavior to be tested without installing real services. The original ServiceController.HandleRequest API remains available as a compatibility adapter.

Build and test

The launchers bootstrap the SDK pinned by global.json when it is not installed globally, then run the Nuke build:

./build.ps1 Compile --configuration Release

On Command Prompt or Unix-like shells use build.cmd or ./build.sh. Tests run on Microsoft Testing Platform with TUnit, and CI rejects production line or branch coverage below 100%.

The repository includes two GitHub Actions workflows:

• BuildOnly.yml compiles and verifies tests and coverage for branches and pull requests.
• BuildDeploy.yml performs a manually selected semantic version bump, validates the release, packs both NuGet packages, publishes them, and creates a GitHub release.

BuildDeploy.yml expects a protected release environment and a NUGET_API_KEY secret.