Ensure a windows service is started from Visual Basic .Net

I have a WCF service being hosted in a Windows Service (using techniques discussed here) and it works great. I'm now writing a (VB.Net) frontend app that needs to call that service, but I don't want my users having to fiddle around with the services snap-in and starting the service manually.

Can I write some code to ensure the Windows Service is started, or start it if it isn't?

Edit: OF course, I can ensure the Service startup is set to automatic, but it doesn't need to be runn开发者_JAVA技巧ing all the time, and even then the frontend app still needs to be sure the service is running and start it if it isn't.

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You can use the ServiceController class to manipulate a service as needed.

Example from MSDN using the Status property to check if a service needs to be started:

' Toggle the Telnet service - 
' If it is started (running, paused, etc), stop the service.
' If it is stopped, start the service.
Dim sc As New ServiceController("Telnet")
Console.WriteLine("The Telnet service status is currently set to {0}", sc.Status)

If sc.Status.Equals(ServiceControllerStatus.Stopped) Or sc.Status.Equals(ServiceControllerStatus.StopPending) Then
   ' Start the service if the current status is stopped.
   Console.WriteLine("Starting the Telnet service...")
   sc.Start()
Else
   ' Stop the service if its status is not set to "Stopped".
   Console.WriteLine("Stopping the Telnet service...")
   sc.Stop()
End If

' Refresh and display the current service status.
sc.Refresh()
Console.WriteLine("The Telnet service status is now set to {0}.", sc.Status)

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You can do something like

    Dim controller As New ServiceController("ServiceNameHere")
    If controller.Status = ServiceControllerStatus.Stopped Then
        controller.Start()
    End If

Remember to add reference to and import System.ServiceProcess