Installing a Windows Service using InstallUtil.exe

This post shows how to install or uninstall a Windows Service written in .NET using C#. To install or uninstall Windows Service (that was created using the .NET Framework) use the utility InstallUtil.exe.

When running InstallUtil.exe it has to be run from the .Net folder matching your machines setup, for instance if you have a 64Bit machine you have to run InstallUtil.exe from the 64Bit .Net folder “C:\Windows\Microsoft.NET\Framework64 \v4.0.30319\InstallUtil.exe” and for a 32Bit machine you can use the normal .Net folder “C:\Windows\Microsoft.NET\Framework\ v4.0.30319\InstallUtil.exe”

The following command executes the installer components in the assembly myAssembly.exe.

installutil myAssembly.exe

The following command executes the uninstaller components in the assembly myAssembly.exe.

installutil /u myAssembly.exe

If you run Installutil.exe against an assembly without specifying any options, it places the following three files into the assembly's directory:

• InstallUtil.InstallLog - Contains a general description of the installation progress.

• assemblyname.InstallLog - Contains information specific to the commit phase of the installation process. For more information about the commit phase, see the Commit method.

• assemblyname.InstallState - Contains data used to uninstall the assembly.

If you’re using the Visual Studio command prompt, InstallUtil.exe should be on the system path. If not, you can add it to the path, or use the fully qualified path to invoke it. This tool is installed with the .NET Framework, and its path is %WINDIR%\ Microsoft.NET\Framework[64]\<framework_version>.

For example, for the 32-bit version of the .NET Framework 4 or 4.5.*, if your Windows installation directory is C:\Windows, the path is C:\Windows\Microsoft.NET \Framework \v4.0.30319\InstallUtil.exe.

For the 64-bit version of the .NET Framework 4 or 4.5.*, the default path is C:\Windows\Microsoft.NET\Framework64 \v4.0.30319\InstallUtil.exe.