Chapter 16

Application Services

What's in this chapter?

Choices for implementing application services
Characteristics of one of the most common technologies for application services, namely Windows Services
How to interact with a Windows Service using Visual Studio and the management applets in the Windows Control Panel
How to create, install, and communicate with a Windows Service using Visual Basic
How to debug a Windows Service from Visual Studio

Modern, multitasking operating systems often need to run applications that operate in the background and that are independent of the user who is logged in. For example, an application that provides a service interface to obtain data needs to service external requests for data regardless of whether there is a current user.

Over time, the number of choices to implement application services has increased. Originally, the main choice was Windows Services, but other choices have been added as .NET and Windows have evolved. Keep in mind that Windows Services aren't something you are going to access in a purely client environment like Windows 8 RT.

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