ServiceController in VB.

NET

A ServiceController component allows us to access and manage Windows Services running on a machine. In this article, I will

discuss how to a ServiceController class to load all services and get information about them in a Windows Forms application using
Visual Studio 2010.

Adding System.ServiceProcess Reference

A ServiceController represents a Windows Service and defined in the System.ServiceProcess namespace. Before this namespace
can be imported, you must add reference to the System.ServiceProcess assembly.
To add reference to an assembly, right click on the project name in Visual Studio and select Add Reference menu item and then
browse the assembly you need to add to your application.

Getting all services installed on a machine

ServiceController.GetServices static method returns list of all services running on a machine. The following
code snippet gets all the services and displays them in a ListBox.
For Each service As ServiceController In ServiceController.GetServices()
Dim serviceName As String = service.ServiceName
ListBox1.Items.Add(serviceName)
Next

ServiceController Properties
Here is a list of ServiceController class properties.

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ServiceController in VB.NET

CanPauseAndContinue -Service can be paused and continued.

CanShutdown - Service can be shut down.
CanStop - Service can be stopped.
DisplayName - Friendly name of a service.
MachineName - Name of the computer where this service is installed.
ServiceName - Service name.
ServiceHandle - Service handle or Id.
ServiceType - Type of a service such as device driver, process, or kernel.
Status - Status of a service such as running, stopped, or paused.
The following code snippet uses some of these properties.
Private Sub GetAllServices()
For Each service As ServiceController In ServiceController.GetServices()
Dim serviceName As String = service.ServiceName
Dim serviceDisplayName As String = service.DisplayName
Dim serviceType As String = service.ServiceType.ToString()
Dim status As String = service.Status.ToString()
ListBox1.Items.Add(serviceName + " " + serviceDisplayName +
serviceType + " " + status)
Next
End Sub

Getting all Device Driver Services installed on a machine

ServiceController.GetDevices static method returns list of all device driver services running on a machine.
The following code snippet gets all the device driver services and displays them in a ListBox.
Private Sub GetAllDevices()
For Each service As ServiceController In ServiceController.GetDevices()
Dim serviceName As String = service.ServiceName
Dim serviceDisplayName As String = service.DisplayName
Dim serviceType As String = service.ServiceType.ToString()
Dim status As String = service.Status.ToString()
ListBox1.Items.Add(serviceName + " " + serviceDisplayName +
serviceType + " " + status)
Next
End Sub

Start, Stop, Pause, Continue, Refresh and Close a Service

We can start, stop, pause, continue and refresh a service using Start, Stop, Pause, Continue, and Refresh
methods. Close method disconnects this ServiceController instance from the service and frees all the
resources that the instance allocated.
The following code snippet checks if a service is stopped, start it; otherwise stop it.
Private Sub StartStop()
Dim service As ServiceController = New ServiceController("MyServiceName")
If ((service.Status.Equals(ServiceControllerStatus.Stopped)) Or
(service.Status.Equals(ServiceControllerStatus.StopPending))) Then

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ServiceController in VB.NET

service.Start()
Else
service.Stop()
End If
End Sub

Summary

In this article, we discussed how to use a ServiceController to get access to services available on a machine.

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