Forum Discussion
Support for Windows services?
- Support for Windows Services is an item in our backlog. The scenario will be able for enterprises and apps in the Microsoft Store for Business.
JeremyTellier Yes. MSIX apps may now contain services. Known caveats I am aware of:
- The service is deployed natively with the package, so unlike normal MSIX package install this requires administrative rights. But this is the same as an MSI would need.
- The service is running outside of the container. So far simple services seem OK, but I'm sure that we will see some services that really need to be in the container with the other components. So test.
- The deployment requires a 20.04 Operating System.
Hi JeremyTellier,
The recommendation for apps in development is to use a background task instead of a windows service. You can create an out-of-process background task as outlined here - https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/uwp/launch-resume/create-and-register-a-background-task
Cheers,
Tanaka
Tanaka_Jimha Those do not run as LocalSystem though right? The process needs to pull down a service and uninstall/reinstall and resent network settings that require a higher priv level.
JeremyTellier If the only purpose of the service is to update the application, and you are the developer, then you should probably be looking at ditching the service and using a better supported way of updating MSIX apps.
Presumably the existing service is making some sort of web connection to detect and download the new software. MSIX has that built in, if you ask for it. This will be much simpler for you to support. Here is a link about this, but perhaps Tanaka_Jimha has a better one.
There are some limitations to consider... See: https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/t5/msix-deployment/msix-automatic-updates-and-authentication/m-p/1098083
- JeremyTellier I'm not sure. I would have used a third party product to help build the package from source. Advanced Installer should be able to do it, although possibly you need the paid for version. Flexera either can or should shortly be able to.Perhaps jvintzel can provide a link to some VS Setup Project compatible documentation.
