How can I debug my Windows service?

Debugging a Service is not as simple as debugging other applications, since it does not run in the context of Visual Studio. But there are several ways to do it:

• Associate the debugger with the service process:

• Compile the service in the debug configuration.
• Install the service.
• Start the service, from the Service Control Manager, from the Server Explorer or from the code.
• Start Visual Studio with administrative credentials, to be able to associate with system processes.
• (Optional) In the Visual Studio menu bar, choose Herramientas , Opciones . In the Opciones dialog box, choose Depuración , Símbolos , check the% Servidores de símbolos de Microsoft box, and then choose the Aceptar button.
• In the menu bar, choose Asociar al proceso in the Debug menu or Tools. (Keyboard: Ctrl + Alt + P) The Processes dialog will appear.
• Check the Mostrar los procesos de todos los usuarios box.
• In the Procesos disponibles section, choose the service process, and then select Asociar . The Asociar al proceso dialog box will appear.

• Choose the appropriate options, and then choose Aceptar to close the dialog box.

• Set the breakpoints you want to use in the code.

• Access the Service Control Manager and manipulate the service; send stop, pause and continuation commands to reach breakpoints.

• Run a Windows service as a console application

• Add a method to the service that runs the OnStart and OnStop methods:

  internal void TestStartupAndStop(string[] args)
  {
      this.OnStart(args);
      Console.ReadLine();
      this.OnStop();
  }
  

• Rewrite the Main method as follows:

  static void Main(string[] args)
  {
      if (Environment.UserInteractive)
      {
           MyNewService service1 = new MyNewService(args);
           service1.TestStartupAndStop(args);
      }
      else
      {
           // Pon el código que tenías antes aquí
      }
  }
  

• On the Aplicación tab of the project properties, set the Output type to Aplicación de consola .
• Choose Iniciar depuración (F5) .
• To rerun the program as a Windows service, install it and start it in the usual way for a Windows service. It is not necessary to reverse these changes.

• Use Debugger.Break or Debugger.Launch

  This is a very simple method. Simply add Debugger.Break or Debugger.Launch in the place where you want the execution of the service to stop and automatically launch the visual studio with the execution stopped at that point. From there, you can debug the service step by step.

• Launch from services.msc

  Another option is to compile the service in debug mode and put a breakpoint where you want the debugger to be launched. Once that is done, the service must be installed to later launch it from services.msc . At that time, the system will pre-register if you want to open it with Visual Studio. Answering affirmatively you can already debug the service. ( Thanks to @Veelicus )

Finally, it depends on the error that the service is giving, it is possible that we can find it in the System Event Log, and we could also capture the exceptions ourselves and add them to this log or to our own log. For more information on how to write in the Windows Event Log, see [this site]. ( link )

Information obtained from MSDN and StackOverflow