VB6 Windows Service

How do you write a Windows Service in VB6?

Althought this is not a recommend practice due to the stability issues and VB6 support, if for
any reason you need to do this I provide a guide of how to do that in VB6 and how do the same thing
in VB.NET and C#.

Using the NTSVC.ocx

This is an OCX implement by Mauricio Ordonez some time ago.
It is very simple to use. You just drop it on a form and add some code to your VB6.

Example: VB6 Form with the NTSVC.ocx control

Private Sub Form_Load()
Me.Visible = False
    Dim strDisplayName As String

On Error GoTo Err_Load

    strDisplayName = NTService1.DisplayName
   
    If Command = "-install" Then
        ' Enable interaction with desktop.
        NTService1.Interactive = True
       
        If NTService1.Install Then
MsgBox strDisplayName & " installed successfully"
        Else
            MsgBox strDisplayName & " failed to install"
        End If
        End
   
    ElseIf Command = "-uninstall" Then
        If NTService1.Uninstall Then
            MsgBox strDisplayName & " uninstalled successfully"
        Else
            MsgBox strDisplayName & " failed to uninstall"
        End If
        End
   
    ElseIf Command = "-debug" Then
        NTService1.Debug = True
   
    ElseIf Command <> "" Then
        MsgBox "Invalid command option"
        End
   
    End If
   
    ' Connect service to Win32 services controller.
    NTService1.StartService
   
Err_Load:
    ' Error starting service
   
End Sub

Private Sub Timer1_Timer()
MsgBox "hola"
End Sub

NOTE: Remember that VB6 is not a supported platform and that even if it is true
that you can still run VB6 code in Windows Vista and Windows 7 MS does not support this
platform anymore.

How can I convert my VB6 service to .NET?

To create a Windows Service in VB.NET follow this steps.

1. First you need to create a Windows Service Project:

a. Open Visual Studio 2010

b. Go to the File\New\Project….

c. Select the Windows Service Template

d. And you just put your code in the OnStart method:

Public Class Service1

    Protected Overrides Sub OnStart(ByVal args() As String)
        ' Add code here to start your service. This method should set things
        ' in motion so your service can do its work.
        ExecuteWindowsServiceCode()
    End Sub

    Protected Overrides Sub OnStop()
        ' Add code here to perform any tear-down necessary to stop your service.
    End Sub

    Private Sub ExecuteWindowsServiceCode()
        'TODO Add Some Code
    End Sub

End Class

e. Another typical thing to do in Windows Service is to add a Timer Control, you you can have
your windows service performs some actions every number of seconds. To do that, drag a
Timer Control on your Service component, execute the Start method of the timer control on the OnStart method and
handle the Tick event:

 

 

 

Public Class Service1

    Protected Overrides Sub OnStart(ByVal args() As String)
        ' Add code here to start your service. This method should set things
        ' in motion so your service can do its work.
        Timer1.Start()
        ExecuteWindowsServiceCode()
    End Sub

    Protected Overrides Sub OnStop()
        ' Add code here to perform any tear-down necessary to stop your service.
        Timer1.Stop()
    End Sub

    Private Sub ExecuteWindowsServiceCode()
        'TODO Add Some Code
    End Sub

    Private Sub Timer1_Tick(sender As System.Object, e As System.EventArgs) Handles Timer1.Tick
        MsgBox("Viva la vida Loca!")
    End Sub
End Class

If you need to recover some of your code from your VB6 project, download our Visual Basic Conversion Tool VBUC tool.

 

How do I Install my Windows Service?

In general you just need to use the command line utility installutil.exe for more details see this other post.