Upgrading Windows service using Inno Setup

Question

I've created a basic Windows service installation using Inno Setup. both install and uninstall works properly.

However, I'm having issues with the upgrade procedure.

In order to upgrade the service executable it is necessary to stop the service, and only after the service is completely stopped can the updated executables be placed in the target folder.

How can I execute a service-stop command and wait for the service to be completely stopped before the file deployment step is initiated?

score 21 · Answer 1 · edited Sep 27 '17 at 17:22

The code below comes from the following page:
http://www.vincenzo.net/isxkb/index.php?title=Service_-_Functions_to_Start%2C_Stop%2C_Install%2C_Remove_a_Service

However, I had to apply a minor fix to make it work.

Note that I originally posted this answer in 2010. The code at the page above was updated in 2011, so it might be worth a visit.

I use this code in my installer, as an #include. It is compiled in Inno Setup ANSI.
It may work for the Unicode version of Inno Setup by replacing A@ with W@ in all external declarations (thank you JeroenWiertPluimers for pointing that out).

Also note that the StartService and StopService just send a start/stop signal, but do not wait for the service to be in the running of stopped state. You can construct code that would wait for the service to be running, using the using IsServiceRunning in conjunction with the Pascal Script Sleep() function. Or just Sleep() a predefined number of seconds.

The code implements these functions:

function IsServiceInstalled(ServiceName: string) : boolean;
function IsServiceRunning(ServiceName: string) : boolean;
function InstallService(FileName, ServiceName, DisplayName, Description : string;ServiceType,StartType :cardinal) : boolean;
function RemoveService(ServiceName: string) : boolean;
function StartService(ServiceName: string) : boolean;
function StopService(ServiceName: string) : boolean;
function SetupService(service, port, comment: string) : boolean;

The actual code:

type
    SERVICE_STATUS = record
        dwServiceType               : cardinal;
        dwCurrentState              : cardinal;
        dwControlsAccepted          : cardinal;
        dwWin32ExitCode             : cardinal;
        dwServiceSpecificExitCode   : cardinal;
        dwCheckPoint                : cardinal;
        dwWaitHint                  : cardinal;
    end;
    HANDLE = cardinal;

const
    SERVICE_QUERY_CONFIG        = $1;
    SERVICE_CHANGE_CONFIG       = $2;
    SERVICE_QUERY_STATUS        = $4;
    SERVICE_START               = $10;
    SERVICE_STOP                = $20;
    SERVICE_ALL_ACCESS          = $f01ff;
    SC_MANAGER_ALL_ACCESS       = $f003f;
    SERVICE_WIN32_OWN_PROCESS   = $10;
    SERVICE_WIN32_SHARE_PROCESS = $20;
    SERVICE_WIN32               = $30;
    SERVICE_INTERACTIVE_PROCESS = $100;
    SERVICE_BOOT_START          = $0;
    SERVICE_SYSTEM_START        = $1;
    SERVICE_AUTO_START          = $2;
    SERVICE_DEMAND_START        = $3;
    SERVICE_DISABLED            = $4;
    SERVICE_DELETE              = $10000;
    SERVICE_CONTROL_STOP        = $1;
    SERVICE_CONTROL_PAUSE       = $2;
    SERVICE_CONTROL_CONTINUE    = $3;
    SERVICE_CONTROL_INTERROGATE = $4;
    SERVICE_STOPPED             = $1;
    SERVICE_START_PENDING       = $2;
    SERVICE_STOP_PENDING        = $3;
    SERVICE_RUNNING             = $4;
    SERVICE_CONTINUE_PENDING    = $5;
    SERVICE_PAUSE_PENDING       = $6;
    SERVICE_PAUSED              = $7;

{ nt based service utilities }
function OpenSCManager(lpMachineName, lpDatabaseName: string; dwDesiredAccess :cardinal): HANDLE;
external 'OpenSCManagerA@advapi32.dll stdcall';

function OpenService(hSCManager :HANDLE;lpServiceName: string; dwDesiredAccess :cardinal): HANDLE;
external 'OpenServiceA@advapi32.dll stdcall';

function CloseServiceHandle(hSCObject :HANDLE): boolean;
external 'CloseServiceHandle@advapi32.dll stdcall';

function CreateService(hSCManager :HANDLE;lpServiceName, lpDisplayName: string;dwDesiredAccess,dwServiceType,dwStartType,dwErrorControl: cardinal;lpBinaryPathName,lpLoadOrderGroup: String; lpdwTagId : cardinal;lpDependencies,lpServiceStartName,lpPassword :string): cardinal;
external 'CreateServiceA@advapi32.dll stdcall';

function DeleteService(hService :HANDLE): boolean;
external 'DeleteService@advapi32.dll stdcall';

function StartNTService(hService :HANDLE;dwNumServiceArgs : cardinal;lpServiceArgVectors : cardinal) : boolean;
external 'StartServiceA@advapi32.dll stdcall';

function ControlService(hService :HANDLE; dwControl :cardinal;var ServiceStatus :SERVICE_STATUS) : boolean;
external 'ControlService@advapi32.dll stdcall';

function QueryServiceStatus(hService :HANDLE;var ServiceStatus :SERVICE_STATUS) : boolean;
external 'QueryServiceStatus@advapi32.dll stdcall';

function QueryServiceStatusEx(hService :HANDLE;ServiceStatus :SERVICE_STATUS) : boolean;
external 'QueryServiceStatus@advapi32.dll stdcall';

function GetLastError() : cardinal;
external 'GetLastError@kernel32.dll stdcall';

function OpenServiceManager() : HANDLE;
begin
    if UsingWinNT() = true then begin
        Result := OpenSCManager('','',SC_MANAGER_ALL_ACCESS);
        if Result = 0 then
            MsgBox('the servicemanager is not available', mbError, MB_OK)
    end
    else begin
            MsgBox('only nt based systems support services', mbError, MB_OK)
            Result := 0;
    end
end;

function IsServiceInstalled(ServiceName: string) : boolean;
var
    hSCM    : HANDLE;
    hService: HANDLE;
begin
    hSCM := OpenServiceManager();
    Result := false;
    if hSCM <> 0 then begin
        hService := OpenService(hSCM,ServiceName,SERVICE_QUERY_CONFIG);
        if hService <> 0 then begin
            Result := true;
            CloseServiceHandle(hService)
        end;
        CloseServiceHandle(hSCM)
    end
end;

function InstallService(FileName, ServiceName, DisplayName, Description : string;ServiceType,StartType :cardinal) : boolean;
var
    hSCM    : HANDLE;
    hService: HANDLE;
begin
    hSCM := OpenServiceManager();
    Result := false;
    if hSCM <> 0 then begin
        hService := CreateService(hSCM,ServiceName,DisplayName,SERVICE_ALL_ACCESS,ServiceType,StartType,0,FileName,'',0,'','','');
        if hService <> 0 then begin
            Result := true;
            { Win2K & WinXP supports additional description text for services }
            if Description<> '' then
                RegWriteStringValue(HKLM,'System\CurrentControlSet\Services\' + ServiceName,'Description',Description);
            CloseServiceHandle(hService)
        end;
        CloseServiceHandle(hSCM)
    end
end;

function RemoveService(ServiceName: string) : boolean;
var
    hSCM    : HANDLE;
    hService: HANDLE;
begin
    hSCM := OpenServiceManager();
    Result := false;
    if hSCM <> 0 then begin
        hService := OpenService(hSCM,ServiceName,SERVICE_DELETE);
        if hService <> 0 then begin
            Result := DeleteService(hService);
            CloseServiceHandle(hService)
        end;
        CloseServiceHandle(hSCM)
    end
end;

function StartService(ServiceName: string) : boolean;
var
    hSCM    : HANDLE;
    hService: HANDLE;
begin
    hSCM := OpenServiceManager();
    Result := false;
    if hSCM <> 0 then begin
        hService := OpenService(hSCM,ServiceName,SERVICE_START);
        if hService <> 0 then begin
            Result := StartNTService(hService,0,0);
            CloseServiceHandle(hService)
        end;
        CloseServiceHandle(hSCM)
    end;
end;

function StopService(ServiceName: string) : boolean;
var
    hSCM    : HANDLE;
    hService: HANDLE;
    Status  : SERVICE_STATUS;
begin
    hSCM := OpenServiceManager();
    Result := false;
    if hSCM <> 0 then begin
        hService := OpenService(hSCM,ServiceName,SERVICE_STOP);
        if hService <> 0 then begin
            Result := ControlService(hService,SERVICE_CONTROL_STOP,Status);
            CloseServiceHandle(hService)
        end;
        CloseServiceHandle(hSCM)
    end;
end;

function IsServiceRunning(ServiceName: string) : boolean;
var
    hSCM    : HANDLE;
    hService: HANDLE;
    Status  : SERVICE_STATUS;
begin
    hSCM := OpenServiceManager();
    Result := false;
    if hSCM <> 0 then begin
        hService := OpenService(hSCM,ServiceName,SERVICE_QUERY_STATUS);
        if hService <> 0 then begin
            if QueryServiceStatus(hService,Status) then begin
                Result :=(Status.dwCurrentState = SERVICE_RUNNING)
            end;
            CloseServiceHandle(hService)
            end;
        CloseServiceHandle(hSCM)
    end
end;

I inherited some code that looks just like your answer. They didn't mention the source nor *ANSI* so it took me a while to realise the `ERROR_INVALID_NAME` a.k.a. 123 (0x7B) error thrown by `OpenSCManager` could be solved by replacing `A@` with `W@` in all `external` declarations as I was running Inno Setup *Unicode*. — Jeroen Wiert Pluimers, Jul 25 '16 at 11:46
I used this solution but with the most recent version of Windows 10 I got this error: "the service manager is not avilable" — Tobia, Mar 25 '21 at 17:47

score 8 · Answer 2 · answered Aug 23 '12 at 00:14

8

As of Inno Setup 5.5.0, the CloseApplications and RestartApplications directives are now available. These options will detect files in use and shut down the applications using them.

answered Aug 23 '12 at 00:14

James Emerton

4,129
2
25
33

1

CloseApplications and RestartApplications use the [Windows Restart Manager](http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/desktop/aa373524.aspx), and it supports GUI, Console and **service** applications. – jachguate Dec 18 '14 at 03:15
I couldn't get CloseApplications to work for a service - not sure why – pogorman Dec 20 '17 at 19:12

score 5 · Answer 3 · answered Mar 17 '10 at 08:09

There are two parts to this:

How can an installer created with Inno Setup start and stop services, how can it create and delete them, how can it change its startup mode?

By using the helper functions provided in this collection of routines written for exactly this purpose. It is written for the Ansi version of Inno Setup, so changes will be necessary to the API function imports and the PChar parameter types, but it should get you started.
How can an existing service be stopped before the new file version is copied?

You have basically two ways of doing this. You would use Pascal scripting to execute the functions linked to above to stop the service, you just need to decide whether to do it in one of the event functions, or whether to do it in a custom function that will be called via the Check parameter of the file entry for the service executable. I would definitely do it in the former, so you can check whether the service was successfully stopped, and prohibit the installation from actually starting when this failed.

You should look into the CurStepChanged() and NextButtonClick() event functions, depending on whether you possibly need to prevent the next step. The Inno Setup examples show the use of both functions.

Your answer is still relevant, would you mind editing the dead link after 11 years :P — Koder101, Apr 04 '21 at 16:03

score 3 · Answer 4 · answered Jan 12 '13 at 08:41

I am using a batch file that stops, uninstalls, installs and starts a given service, i just call the batchfile using innosetup after all files have been copied.

[Run]
Filename: "{app}\Scripts\installwindowsService.bat"; Parameters: "{app}"; Flags: runhidden

I put the following commands in my batch file

net stop MyService

%SYSTEMROOT%\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v4.0.30319\installutil.exe /u MyService.exe 

%SYSTEMROOT%\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v4.0.30319\installutil.exe  MyService.exe /unattended

net start MyService

It works like a charm and is very simple. can be used for a first time install or for an update. Hope it helps you.

It's too late to comment but worth if someone visiting in 2021 or later - This will not work in case the service is already installed and running and when you re-run the setup. The service file will remain locked and will not be replaced with the new file. — Koder101, Apr 04 '21 at 16:01

Upgrading Windows service using Inno Setup

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