Converting a console service application to a Windows service

Writing and debugging a Windows service can be difficult and slow. In the Creating a Windows service recipe in Chapter 1, Delphi Basics, we learned how to write and debug a Windows service from scratch, but in some cases you already have a console or VCL application that already does its job. However, it would be better if the console or VCL application could be recreated as a Windows service.

Getting ready

In this recipe, we'll take the WebBroker application created in the previous recipe as a console application and convert it to a full flagged Windows service. The same approach can be used for any type of service-like application that currently is not built as a service.

As a bonus, we'll learn that if correctly architected, a project can be compiled as a console or VCL application and, without much change, as a Windows service as well. WebBroker is particularly well architected to do so, so our application will benefit from it...