How to Install Windows Service Programmatically

Sometimes you may want to install a Windows Service programmatically, but the target machine does not have InstallUtil.exe.

To install a Windows Service programmatically, you can build an application to install that Windows Service.

  • Add a reference to System.Configuration.Install
  • Use this code:
 public static void InstallService(string ExeFilename)
{
    System.Configuration.Install.AssemblyInstaller Installer = new System.Configuration.Install.AssemblyInstaller(ExeFilename);
    Installer.UseNewContext = true;
    Installer.Install(null);
    Installer.Commit(null);
}

To uninstall:

 public static void UninstallService(string ExeFilename)
{
    System.Configuration.Install.AssemblyInstaller Installer = new System.Configuration.Install.AssemblyInstaller(ExeFilename);
    Installer.UseNewContext = true;
    Installer.Uninstall(null);
}