Configuring Services.exe to Load a Standalone Service

By default, all service DLLs are loaded into the same copy of Services.exe that is started on device initialization. In certain cases it may be preferable to isolate a service by having a new copy of Services.exe created explicitly for it. The main reason for isolating a service is to ensure that it will not corrupt other services.

Isolating a service is useful for debugging because locating a corruption in a process with only one service running is easier than trying to find a problem with multiple services running concurrently. Running a standalone services also provides increased reliability.

For Windows CE .NET 4.2 and later you can configure Services.exe to load a service into a separate copy of Services.exe by setting the service's context flag in the registry.

To configure Services.exe to load a service in standalone mode

1. Under the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Services\<Service Name> registry key for your service, set the Context value of type REG_DWORD to SERVICE_INIT_STANDALONE (0x02). The following example shows the registry settings for a service named "MyService":

   HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Services\MyService\Context=dword:0x00000002

2. Services.exe will pass the context flags to the service's xxx_Init function in the dwData parameter. If the service does not support running in standalone mode, xxx_Init should return FALSE if the SERVICE_INIT_STANDALONE flag is passed on startup.

See Also

Services.exe | Configuring Services.exe to Load a Standalone Service | Shutting down a Standalone Service | xxx_Init | Limitations to Standalone Services

 Last updated on Saturday, April 10, 2004

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