How to create windows service in powershell?

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I want to launch a simple windows service through Windows PowerShell ISE. My code is as below:

$serviceName = "BabServiceInPowerShell"

Class BabServiceInPowerShell : System.ServiceProcess.ServiceBase {
    [System.ComponentModel.Description("OnStart")]
    [void] OnStart([string[]]$args) {
        Write-Host "Service started"
    }

    [System.ComponentModel.Description("OnStop")]
    [void] OnStop() {
        Write-Host "Service stopped"
    }
}

$service = [BabServiceInPowerShell]::new()

Register-ObjectEvent -InputObject $service -EventName "OnStart" -Action {
    $global:serviceStatus = "Starting"
}

Register-ObjectEvent -InputObject $service -EventName "OnStop" -Action {
    $global:serviceStatus = "Stopping"
}

Set-Service -Name $serviceName -Status Running

When I click Run Script button it shows this error

Register-ObjectEvent : Cannot register for the specified event. An event with the name 'OnStart' does not exist.
Parameter name: eventName
At F:\Per\PowerShell\WindowsServiceBab.ps1:19 char:1
+ Register-ObjectEvent -InputObject $service -EventName OnStart -Action ...
+ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
+ CategoryInfo : InvalidArgument: (BabServiceInPowerShell:BabServiceInPowerShell) [Register-ObjectEvent], ArgumentExcep
tion
+ FullyQualifiedErrorId : INVALID_REGISTRATION,Microsoft.PowerShell.Commands.RegisterObjectEventCommand

So it won't allow me to register OnStart and OnStop events for my windows service. Please help!

What I have tried:

I've gone through some articles from internet. Unfortunately I couldn't find a single article on this topic. I'm working on PowerShell ISE to develop my Windows Service purely in Windows PowerShell.

Posted 7-Apr-23 7:16am

baburman

Updated 9-Apr-23 1:26am

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0x01AA · Answer 1 · 2023-04-09T01:26:00

Solution 2

OnStart and OnStop are not events the .NET object System.ServiceProcess.ServiceBase does expose. These are virtual Methods you can ovveride in case you derive from ServiceBase.

For more infromation please read this: Register-ObjectEvent (Microsoft.PowerShell.Utility) - PowerShell | Microsoft Learn[^].

Quote:
EventName
Specifies the event to which you are subscribing.

The value of this parameter must be the name of the event that the .NET object exposes.

Posted 9-Apr-23 1:26am

0x01AA

Comments

baburman 10-Apr-23 8:58am

Thanks for the reply. The question is then how may I register OnStart() and OnStop() events for my service?

0x01AA 10-Apr-23 9:54am

For this you have the methods

[void] OnStart([string[]]$args) {
        Write-Host "Service started"
    }

which will called

baburman 10-Apr-23 12:56pm

Ok, then I remove Register-ObjectEvent cmdlets and here's my final code.

Add-Type -AssemblyName System.ServiceProcess

$serviceName = "BabServiceInPowerShell"

Class BabServiceInPowerShell : System.ServiceProcess.ServiceBase {
[System.ComponentModel.Description("OnStart")]
[void] OnStart([string[]]$args) {
#Write-Host "Service started"
}

[System.ComponentModel.Description("OnStop")]
[void] OnStop() {
#Write-Host "Service stopped"
}
}

$service = [BabServiceInPowerShell]::new()

Set-Service -Name $serviceName -StartupType Automatic
Start-Service -Name $serviceName

Still it gives error which I can't figure:

Start-Service : Service 'My Service (BabServiceInPowerShell)' cannot be started due to the following error: Cannot start service
BabServiceInPowerShell on computer '.'.
At F:\Per\PowerShell\WindowsServiceBab.ps1:31 char:1
+ Start-Service -Name $serviceName
+ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
+ CategoryInfo : OpenError: (System.ServiceProcess.ServiceController:ServiceController) [Start-Service], ServiceCommand
Exception
+ FullyQualifiedErrorId : CouldNotStartService,Microsoft.PowerShell.Commands.StartServiceCommand