Retrieve CPU, memory, and disk usages with the performance counter and WMI,.Log service polling results in a weekly generated log file,.Simulate tasks on the local system and the remote host in check cycles,.Configure the service behavior with input by using XmlSerializer,.This article will show you an example of a system monitoring service by demonstrating how to:
So the question is how to prepare a Windows service for the input data and how to receive its resulted outputs. Usually, the service running states can be logged into the Windows Event Viewer, but such a log is quite limited and not easy to retrieve being saved. Because the Windows service is not interactive, a dialog raised within the service cannot be seen and may stop it responding. An application usually need to display their output to indicate results or exceptions. For details, refer to MSDN: Windows Service Applications.Īlmost all applications require receiving some input to prepare data and states for a task.
You must create an installation component for the service, which installs and registers the service, and creates its entry with the Services Control Manager. Different from other applications, the service executable must be installed before it can work. You can then use the Services Control Manager to start, stop, pause, resume, and configure your service.
You can create a service as a Microsoft Visual Studio project, defining code to control commands sent and actions taken to the commands.
The example can be monitoring local system resources or collecting and analyzing data from remote units. Windows services are ideal for lengthy periodically running tasks that do not interfere with the user working on the computer. The service can be automatically started at boot time, can be paused, resumed, and restarted, without any user interface. This is another kind of application that we can implement as Windows services.Ī Windows service is a long-running executable that runs in its own Windows session. You probably need to record system data in the background, to monitor the records, and trigger some actions if necessary. Sometimes, you might not want to watch your system all the time in UI. Years ago, I posted the article An Implementation of System Monitor, which displays computer resource usages in a Windows form, similar to the Performance page in the Windows Task Manager.