Starting, stopping, and uninstalling a service

The ServiceInstall element works well for installing a service, but doesn't provide a way to start, stop, or uninstall one. For that, you'll use the ServiceControl element. It can be added to the same component as the ServiceInstall element thereby sending signals to the testsvc test service you're installing.

The following example starts the service during install and stops and removes it during uninstall. These actions happen during the deferred stage of the Execute sequence:

<DirectoryRef Id="INSTALLFOLDER">
   <Component ... >
 
      <File ... />

      <ServiceInstall ... />

      <ServiceControl
         Id="sc_WindowsService1"
         Name="testsvc"
         Start="install"
         Stop="both"
         Remove="uninstall"
         Wait="yes" />
   </Component>
</DirectoryRef>

The Name attribute specifies the service that you want to control. Start, Stop, and Remove can each be set to one of the...