CNTService v2.09 A C++ class framework for developing NT services

Classes includes:

CNTServiceCommandLineInfo

The CNTServiceCommandLineInfo class aids in parsing the command line at application start-up. It is based almost exactly upon the way that the CCommandLineInfo class in MFC works.

CNTEventLogSource

CNTEventLogSource provides a wrapper class for writing events to the NT event log. You could consider this as the server side to the Event log APIs.

CNTService

CNTService is the class which provides a C++ framework upon which you can develop your own C++ based NT services. The class makes heavy use of virtual functions which your service class should override.

CNTScmService

CNTScmService is a class which encapsulates a service as returned from the Service Control Manager, in effect a SC_HANDLE. An instance of a CNTScmService is usually acquired by a call to CNTServiceControlManager::Open. Once retrieved the class allows you to control the service, change its configuration and query a service's state.

CNTServiceControlManager

CNTServiceControlManager is a class which encapsulates a connection to a Service Control Manager (SCM) on some machine. Functionality provided includes enumeration, database locking and service access.

CEventLogRecord

CEventLogRecord is a C++ wrapper class for the EVENTLOGRECORD structure as provided in the SDK. For anyone who has had to use this class using raw SDK calls, you will appreciate the easier access which the class provides.

CNTEventLog

CNTEventLog is a C++ wrapper class for accessing the NT Event Logs. You can consider this as the client side to the Event Log APIs.

Features

• Simple and clean C++ interface using virtual functions.
• All the code is Unicode enabled and build configurations are provided.
• All code compiles cleanly at the highest warning level of 4. This is the case with all of my other code on my web site as well.
• Built in persistence functions which provide support similar to the build in MFC registry / ini functions.
• A simple test service has been provided to help you get started developing your own NT services.
• Comprehensive documentation is provided for all the classes.

The enclosed zip file contains the classes source code and a sample NT service which beeps the speaker! (at least if you are running a Pre Vista version of Windows. The reason you will hear nothing on Vista or later is because of Session 0 service isolation. Anyway the sample service is just that and your service will hopefully do something more interesting!).

Copyright

• You are allowed to include the source code in any product (commercial, shareware, freeware or otherwise) when your product is released in binary form.
• You are allowed to modify the source code in any way you want except you cannot modify the copyright details at the top of each module.
• If you want to distribute source code with your application, then you are only allowed to distribute versions released by the author. This is to maintain a single distribution point for the source code.

Updates

v2.09 (28 March 2024)

• Updated copyright details.
• Fixed a number of compiler issues reported by Visual Studio 2022.

v2.08 (23 September 2023)

• Updated SAL across the code.

v2.07 (10 May 2023)

• Updated copyright details
• Updated modules to indicate that it needs to be compiled using /std:c++17. Thanks to Martin Richter for reporting this issue.

v2.06 (5 February 2022)

• Updated the code to use C++ uniform initialization for all variable declarations
• Reworked CNTService::ReportStatus and CNTService::_ReportStatus methods to use std::optional for some of its parameters.

v2.05 (15 January 2022)

• Removed defunct _ServiceCtrlHandler method.
• Reworked CNTService::RegisterCtrlHandler and CNTService::_ServiceCtrlHandlerEx methods to use third parameter to RegisterServiceCtrlHandlerEx instead of need to use sm_pService static member variable.
• Updated the sample service included with the download to log the current system time to the registry value HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\PJSERVICE\Parameters\General\CurrentSystemTime.

v2.04 (9 January 2022)

• Updated copyright details
• Fixed more Clang-Tidy static code analysis warnings in VC 2022 in the code.

30 July 2021

• Updated copyright details.
• Updated compiler settings to more modern defaults.

v2.03 (26 July 2020)

• Fixed more Clang-Tidy static code analysis warnings in the code.
• Fixed a compile problem in ntservEventLogRecord.cpp in VC 2019 related to missing iterator header file.
• Updated the codebase to support GetSharedServiceRegistryStateKey and GetSharedServiceDirectory APIs.
• Fixed up the logic and return values for the CNTService::GetRegistryStateKey and CNTService::GetServiceDirectory methods now that there is proper documentation available for these APIs.

v2.02 (12 April 2020)

• Fixed more Clang-Tidy static code analysis warnings in the code.

v2.01 (5 January 2020)

• Fixed more Clang-Tidy static code analysis warnings in the code.

v2.0 (28 December 2019)

• Fixed various Clang-Tidy static code analysis warnings in the code.

v1.99 (6 November 2019)

• Removed unnecessary return value from CNTServiceControlManager::Attach method.
• Removed unnecessary return value from CNTScmService::Attach method.
• Removed unnecessary return value from CNTEventLogSource::Attach method.
• Removed unnecessary return value from CNTEventLog::Attach method.
• Replaced BOOL with bool in a number of places throughout the framework.

v1.98 (3 November 2019)

• Updated initialization of various structs to use C++ 11 list initialization

v1.97 (26 October 2019)

• Updated CNTServiceCommandLineInfo::ParseParam to handle text arguments which may include spaces. This means that for example using the command line form /switch:"Text with Blank" will be handled correctly. Thanks to Martin Richter for suggesting this nice addition.

v1.96 (17 September 2019)

• Remove noexcept attribute from a number of CNTService virtual methods

v1.95 (13 August 2019)

• Fixed some compile problems when _ATL_NO_AUTOMATIC_NAMESPACE is defined
• Fixed some further compiler warnings when using VC 2019 Preview v16.3.0 Preview 2.0
• Fixed a problem in CNTService::GetServiceParametersKey where the bReadOnly parameter was not being used to open some registry keys.

v1.94 (28 July 2019)

• Fixed some further compiler warnings when using VC 2019 Preview

v1.93 (2 June 2019)

• Updated copyright details
• Updated the code to clean compile on VC 2019
• Replaced all occurrences of ATL::CHeapPtr with std::vector

v1.92 (1 September 2018)

• Fixed up code which supports GetServiceRegistryStateKey and GetServiceDirectory APIs to reference correct Windows DLL.

v1.91 (29 August 2018)

• Fixed a number of compiler warnings when using VS 2017 15.8.1
• Updated the codebase to support GetServiceRegistryStateKey and GetServiceDirectory APIs

v1.90 (2 June 2018)

• Supressed final C++ core guidelines compiler warnings from the code.
• Tidied up various project settings in the sample solution and project files.

v1.89 (26 May 2018)

• Updated copyright details.
• Fixed a number of C++ core guidelines compiler warnings. These changes mean that the code will now only compile on VC 2017 or later.
• Removed all code which supports now defunct CNTSERVICE_MFC_EXTENSIONS code paths
• CNTService::Debug method is now passed unmodified command line parameters.

v1.88 (16 September 2017)

• Replaced CString::operator LPC*STR() calls throughout the codebase with CString::GetString calls.

v1.87 (27 April 2017)

• Updated the code to compile cleanly using /permissive-.

v1.86 (16 April 2017)

• Added support for SubscribeServiceChangeNotifications, UnsubscribeServiceChangeNotifications and WaitServiceState API calls from the latest Windows 10 SDK.
• Removed CNTScmService::AcceptStop, AcceptPauseContinue & AcceptShutdown methods as they provided not very useful encapsulated functionality.
• Added support for SERVICE_CONTROL_LOWRESOURCES & SERVICE_CONTROL_SYSTEMLOWRESOURCES from the latest Windows 10 SDK.

v1.85 (9 April 2017)

• Updated copyright details.
• Update the code to compile cleanly on VC 2017
• Replaced NULL throughout the codebase with nullptr. This means that the minimum requirement for the framework is now VC 2010.
• Removed all code which used function pointers for API calls prior to Windows XP / 2003.

v1.84 (15 November 2016)

• Updated the sample app's project settings to create the message file with the name "TestSrv.dll" in the directory where the "TestSrv.exe" binary for the sample service is created. Thanks to Brian Minor for reporting this issue.
• Corrected initialization of a local variable in the method CNTService::WriteServiceProfileString.

v1.83 (1 June 2016)

• Fixed a bug in the non MFC code path in CNTService::GetServiceProfileString where the code left a NULL byte in the std::string return value prior to returning from the method. Therefore the returned string object contained a binary zero and cannot be used to concatenate other strings. Thanks to Martin Gamperl for spotting this bug.
• Some minor tidy-ups to the code style throughout the ntserv.cpp module.

v1.82 (19 April 2016)

• Updated copyright details.
• Addition of a new /EnableServiceLogonRight command line option. When this is passed and the /install and /U options are provided, the code will first enable the SeServiceLogonRight privilege for the specified account using the LsaAddAcountRights API.

v1.81 (18 December 2015)

• Updated copyright details.
• Verified code compiles cleanly on VC 2015.
• Updated CNTService::ProcessShellCommand to use string::find instead of std::find.
• Reviewed all the changes in the Windows 10 SDK to do with Services to make sure the classes support new functionality and compile correctly when used with this updated SDK.
• Added SAL annotations to all the code

v1.80 (1 January 2014)

• Updated copyright details.
• Updated code to clean compile on VC 2013
• Reworked the classes to optionally compile without MFC. By default the classes now use STL for strings and arrays but if you define CNTSERVICE_MFC_EXTENSIONS, the classes will revert back to using the MFC collection classes.
• Updated the codebase to support all Service features upto Windows 8.1. New features supported includes SERVICE_CONFIG_LAUCH_PROTECTED support available via CNTScmService::QueryLaunchProtected and CNTScmService::ChangeLaunchProtected and QueryServiceDynamicInformation support available via CNTService::QueryServiceDynamicInformation.

v1.79 (10 November 2012)

• Updated copyright details.
• Updated sample service code to clean compile on VC 2012.
• Reworked CNTScmService::WaitForServiceStatus method to avoid the need for calling GetTickCount.
• Fixed a bug in CNTEventLogSource::GetStringArrayFromRegistry where it could not handle empty MULTI_SZ strings. Thanks to Rolf Schatten for reporting this bug.
• CNTEventLogSource::Install now calls CRegKey::Create instead of CRegKey::Open when installing the HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\EventLog\"LogName" registry key. This ensures that event log sources which are created with custom LogName's will be installed correctly. Thanks to Rolf Schatten for reporting this bug.

v1.78 (3 September 2010)

• Fixed a bug in CNTService::GetServiceProfileString where it would incorrectly return FALSE.
• Fixed a bug in CNTService::GetServiceProfileInt where it would incorrectly return FALSE.

v1.77 (1 August 2010)

• Updated copyright details.
• Updated the project settings to more modern default values.
• Fixed a trailing "," in the definition of the "ELErrorLoggingDetail" enum
• Updated the sample app to compile cleanly on VC 2010
• Updated the test code in App.cpp to only use the necessary rights when connecting to the SCM or opening a specific service. This avoids Access denied errors on Windows Vista or later when UAC is enabled. Thanks to Jan Bartels for reporting this issue.
• Added support for the following SERVICE_CONTROL_* defines: SERVICE_CONTROL_SESSIONCHANGE, SERVICE_CONTROL_PRESHUTDOWN, SERVICE_CONTROL_TIMECHANGE & SERVICE_CONTROL_TRIGGEREVENT. These control values represent new functionality for services on Windows Vista and Windows 7
• Added a comment to a #include to tell users to recompile TestSrvMsg if they get a compile error for "ntserv_msg.h". Thanks to Paul Pignon for reporting this issue.
• Updated code to compile correctly using _ATL_CSTRING_EXPLICIT_CONSTRUCTORS define
• Fixed a minor issue in CNTService::Win32ErrorToString with the use of printf format identifiers
• Reworked all the internal heap memory management code to use ATL::CHeapPtr
• Reworked all the internal registry management code to use ATL::CRegKey
• The CNTService::m_bRegisterEventLogSource value has been renamed to m_bEventLogSource. This is a breaking change and may require your service code to be updated if you reference this value from your code.
• CNTService::Install has been refactored. Internally now this function calls InstallEventLogSource and InstallServiceConfiguration
• Fixed a minor issue in CNTEventLogSource::Report with the use of printf format identifiers
• CNTEventLogSource::Install method now supports CategoryCount, CategoryMessageFile and ParameterMessageFile settings for event sources
• Included notes in documentation about using MSI in preference to "/install" / "/uninstall"
• Added support for NotifyServiceStatusChange
• Added support for ControlServiceEx
• Added support for SERVICE_CONFIG_DELAYED_AUTO_START_INFO
• Added support for SERVICE_CONFIG_FAILURE_ACTIONS_FLAG
• Added support for SERVICE_CONFIG_SERVICE_SID_INFO
• Added support for SERVICE_CONFIG_REQUIRED_PRIVILEGES_INFO
• Added support for SERVICE_CONFIG_PRESHUTDOWN_INFO
• Added support for SERVICE_CONFIG_TRIGGER_INFO
• Added support for SERVICE_CONFIG_PREFERRED_NODE
• CEventLogRecord::m_TimeGenerated and CEventLogRecord::m_TimeWritten values are now simple DWORD values instead of CTime instances.
• Added support for GetEventLogInformation
• Carried out a thorough code review to ensure all functionality is correct and functional on the Windows 7 and later

v1.76 (1 June 2008)

• Code now compiles cleanly using Code Analysis (/analyze)
• The code has now been updated to support VC 2005 or later only.

v1.75 (12 January 2008)

• Updated copyright details.
• Provided a link to my blog in the html documentation with details on compiling with VC 6.
• CNTService::Win32ErrorToString method has been reworked to now uses the FORMAT_MESSAGE_IGNORE_INSERTS flag. For more information please see Raymond Chen's blog at http://blogs.msdn.com/oldnewthing/archive/2007/11/28/6564257.aspx. Thanks to Alexey Kuznetsov for reporting this issue.
• Updated the sample app to clean compile on VC 2008.
• SecureEmptyString method is now defined as "FORCEINLINE".

v1.74 (19 November 2007)

• Minor update to display HRESULT's correctly.

v1.73 (22 March 2007)

• CNTService::SetServiceToStatus and CNTService::Uninstall no longer specifies that it requires the SC_MANAGER_LOCK access right to connect to the SCM. This change helps to allow services to be started and stopped from Power User accounts. Thanks to Matthias Miller for reporting this issue.
• CNTService::SetServiceToStatus no longer specifies the STANDARD_RIGHTS_REQUIRED access right when opening a service to control. This change helps to allow services to be started and stopped from Power User accounts. Thanks to Matthias Miller for reporting this issue.

v1.72 (2 February 2007)

• Updated copyright details.
• Optimized CNTEventLog constructor code.
• Reworked CNTService::SetServiceToStatus to allow the last error value to be reported back to client code. Thanks to Matthias Miller for reporting this issue.
• Optimized calls to Win32ErrorToString.

20 November 2006

• Minor update to use console I/O in the sample app instead of a MessageBox in CMyService::ShowHelp.
• Optimized the member variable construction in CMyService::CMyService.

v1.71 (21 September 2006)

• Minor update to use %X instead of %x in various TRACE statements and CNTEventLogSource::Report calls.

v1.70 (1 August 2006)

• Fix for two buffer size calculations using the new _tcscpy_s functions, one in CNTEventLogSource::SetStringArrayIntoRegistry and the other in CNTService::GetDependencies. Thanks to DmityShm on the codeproject forums for reporting this issue.

v1.69 (27 July 2006)

• The static versions of the profile functions in CNTService have now been renamed to include the word "Service" in their method names. This fixes a compiler error when the code is used in VC 2005.

13 July 2006

• Fixed a bug in the sample service's project files to remove references to the now defunct ntservDefines.h header file.
• Fixed a bug in the VC 7.1+ project file to correct the linker entry point for the sample service included in the download. This fixes the "Warning: m_pMainWnd is NULL in CWinApp::Run - quitting application" trace message appearing when you attempt to run the sample service under the debugger.

v1.68 (2 July 2006)

• Optimized and tidied up DllMain code in TestSrvMsg.cpp
• All calls to m_EventLogSource.Report are now protected with "if (m_bRegisterEventLogSource)" check
• Removed now unused Project configurations from the VC 6 workspace file.

v1.67 (25 June 2006)

• Combined the functionality of the _NTSERV_SERVICCONTROLMANAGER_DATA class into the main CNTServiceControlManager class.
• Code now uses newer C++ style casts instead of C style casts.
• Combined the functionality of the _NTSERV_SCMSERVICE_DATA class into the main CNTScmService class.
• Made the item data parameter to CNTScmService::EnumDependents a void* instead of the current DWORD.
• Optimized CEventLogRecord constructor
• Combined the functionality of the _NTSERV_DATA class into the main CNTService class.
• The class framework now requires the Platform SDK if compiled using VC 6.
• Fixed code which was not securely resetting the command line username and password strings after they were used

v1.66 (24 June 2006)

• Added a missing MapResourceID call in CNTService::Win32ErrorToString.
• Updated the sample dsp and vcproj files to produce Unicode mc resources instead of ASCII.
• Framework now accepts the command line /console to mean the same as /debug i.e. run the program as a normal (console) application without interacting with the Service Control Manager.
• Updated code to compile cleanly using VC 2005.
• Included info in ntservEventLogSource.cpp on how to find further info on the various registry values which are required to create user defined event logs.

v1.65 (13 June 2006)

• Addition of a logname parameter to the CNTEventLogSource constructor to support user defined event logs instead of logging to the standard "Application" event log. Please note that the code added only enables the CNTService framework to use non "Application" event logs, but it does not contain code to create a custom event log. You will need to handle that in your application's install. Thanks to Jan Bartels for this addition.
• Also optimized the construction of member variables in the CNTEventLogSource constructors
• To allow customization in client projects, the resource id and message id values can now be customized through two new virtual functions, namely CNTService::MapResourceID and CNTService::MapMessageID. Thanks to Jan Bartels for this update.
• CNTService::SetServiceToStatus now exposes the interval to wait as a parameter as well as the polling interval as a parameter. In addition the command line timeout interval is now passed to all calls to SetServiceToStatus in CNTService::ProcessShellCommand. The additional command line operations which are passed the timeout value include starting, stopping, pausing and continuing the service, in addition to uninstalling the service which when it was introduced in v1.27 was the only operation which got the timeout value.
• Fixed a bug introduced in v1.64 where the sample service was updated to run as a console app. What I forgot to do when making this change was put in the call to AfxWinInit.

v1.64 (9 June 2006)

• Made CNTService::Initialize non virtual. This change was made because it is called by the CNTService constructor and you cannot call virtual functions from a C++ class constructor (or destructor). For more info on this issue please see the online article at http://www.artima.com/cppsource/nevercall.html from the book "Effective C++" by Scott Meyers. Thanks to Frederic Metrich for spotting this issue. Because of this change you should examine your own code which uses CNTService::Initialize to make sure this change has no side effects on your code.

v1.63 (7 June 2006)

• Removed three unreferrenced variables from CNTService::ProcessShellCommand. Thanks to Frederic Metrich for reporting this issue.
• Minor update to the declaration of some functions in CNTService to using "WINAPI" in their function implementations. Thanks to Frederic Metrich for reporting this issue.
• Updated the code in CNTService::Debug to exclude the "/debug", "-app", "/app", "-application" and "/application" command line options in addition to the "-debug" value. Again thanks to Frederic Metrich for reporting this issue.
• Updated the sample service provided with the CNTService download to build as a console app instead of a Windows app. This allows you to check out the console handler support which CNTService includes.

v1.62 (3 June 2006)

• If CNTEventLogSource::Uninstall fails to remove the HKLM\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\EventLog\"Display Name" registry key, then it aborts before doing any other work. Thanks to Matthias Miller for reporting this issue.
• Fixed a minor typo in CNTService::SetServiceToStatus. Thanks to Matthias Miller for reporting this issue.

v1.61 (31 May 2006)

• Updated the code to work correctly in VC 6 without the Platform SDK being installed. I personally have the Feb 2003 Platform SDK installed with VC 6 and this is how most of my code is primarily tested. It seems some of my recent updates to CNTService have broken compatibility with VC 6 on its own. Also renamed the define "NTSERV_DO_NEW_WINSVC_DEFINES" which is required when you are compiling the class framework on Visual C++ 6 without the Platform SDK to be "CNTSERVICE_MISSING_PLATFORMSDK". Please note that I would advise all developers to install the Platform SDK (February 2003 was the latest version which was compatible with VC 6), as I will probably drop support for VC 6 without the Platform SDK for CNTService in the future. It is becoming too much work to support the older Header files which were shipped with VC 6 and most of my other open source code is moving towards requiring the Platform SDK. Thanks to Matthias Miller for reporting this issue. The "NTSERV_EXCLUDE_VC6_WINSVC_DEFINES" define is now defunct and no longer used by the CNTService code.

v1.60 (18 May 2006)

• Minor update to rename the local variable of type _NTSERV_SERVICCONTROLMANAGER_DATA which is used to hold function pointers. Thanks to Frederic Metrich for reporting this issue.
• Minor update to rename the local variable of type _NTSERV_SCMSERVICE_DATA which is used to hold function pointers. Thanks to Frederic Metrich for reporting this issue.

v1.59 (12 May 2006)

• Minor update to ntservEventLogRecord.cpp module to remove now unnecessary include of AfxPriv.h. Thanks to Martin Richter for reporting this issue.
• Also updated the usage instructions in this document to describe how you can use copy & paste to speed up the job. Again thanks to Martin Richter for reporting this issue.

v1.58 (27 April 2006)

• Code now uses SecureZeroMemory when wiping out the username and password strings. This should further improve the security of these values when they are manipulated by the class framework.

v1.57 (13 January 2006)

• Addition of a new /AUTO command line option which allows you to specify that the service should be started automatically.

v1.56 (11 January 2006)

• The command line options which the service uses to start with can now be specified via a new /SCL command line option e.g. TestSrv.exe /install "/SCL:/Param1 /SomeOtherParam:XYZ". This additional flexibility is controlled by BOOL CNTService::m_bAllowCommandLine which by default is FALSE.
• Updated copyright details for all modules
• The service display name string which the service uses for installing can now be specified via a new /SDN command line option. This is achieved by supporting a new command line option e.g. TestSrv.exe /install "/SDN:PJ's Second Test Service". This additional flexibility is controlled by BOOL CNTService::m_bAllowDisplayNameChange which by default is FALSE.
• The description string which the service uses for installing can now be specified via a new /SD command line option. This is achieved by supporting a new command line option e.g. TestSrv.exe /install "/SD:Some description". This additional flexibility is controlled by BOOL CNTService::m_bAllowDescriptionChange which by default is FALSE.
• The service name string which the service uses for installing can now be specified via a new /SN command line option. This is achieved by supporting a new command line option e.g. TestSrv.exe /install "/SN:PJSERVICE2".
• Removed code which writes an event log entry when the service is being uninstalling. There is not much sense in logging an entry that you have uninstalled the service, when you are also uninstalling the event log source.
• Removed the ANSI mc file. Instead now the mc file included in the zip file is the Unicode mc file as provided by Brodie Thiesfield (see the history list for v1.35).
• Updated the documentation to use the same style as the web site.
• When registering the service, the quoting of the path name to use for the service is now done in CNTService::ProcessShellCommand instead of CNTScmService::Create.
• Optimized code in CNTServiceCommandLineInfo::CNTServiceCommandLineInfo.
• Removed unnecessary CNTServiceCommandLineInfo destructor.
• Removal of CNTService::GetEventLogSourceName method. Instead now you can call m_EventLogSource.SetSourceName() to customize this value.
• Provision of CNTService::SetUseConsole and CNTService::GetUseConsole methods.
• The default setting for CNTService::m_bUseConsole is now set depending on whether the standard _CONSOLE preprocessor define is declared
• Removed the unnecessary critical section lock in the CNTService constructor
• Provision of CNTService::SetControlsAccepted and CNTService::GetControlsAccepted methods.
• Provision of a default CNTService constructor
• Addition of a default constructor for CNTEventLogSource
• Addition of CNTEventLogSource::SetServerName, CNTEventLogSource::GetServerName, CNTEventLogSource::SetSourceName and CNTEventLogSource::GetSourceName methods
• Provision of CNTService::SetServiceName, CNTService::SetInstanceServiceName, CNTService::SetMasterServiceName, CNTService::GetInstanceServiceName, CNTService::GetMasterServiceName, CNTService::SetDisplayName, CNTService::SetMasterDisplayName, CNTService::SetInstanceDisplayName, CNTService::GetMasterDisplayName, CNTService::GetInstanceDisplayName, CNTService::SetDescription, CNTService::SetMasterDescription, CNTService::SetInstanceDescription methods, CNTService::GetMasterDescription and CNTService::GetInstanceDescription. Most of the work for this release of the framework is to support a new concept of "instances" in CNTService. Prior to this version of the CNTService framework, you could only ever install a single copy of any one service on the one machine. Now with the introduction of the /SDN, /SD and /SN command line options which are used during install and uninstall you can register the service multiple times, using different service names, display names and descriptions. The original values you construct your CNTService instance are called the master values and are unmodified during the lifetime of all instances of your services. The "instance" values are modifiable (if you allow them to be so via CNTService::m_bAllowNameChange, CNTService::m_bAllowDisplayNameChange and CNTService::m_bAllowDescriptionChange) at runtime. When these values are provided on the command line during registration, the command line which the service is setup to use upon launch by the SCM is customized so that these same command line options are passed to it. This allows the same instance values to be available to the service when it is running as a service. Without this neat trick, there would be no easy way for the service to detect under which instance details it should run.
• Addition of 2 new command line options namely "/App" or "/Application". These behave the same way as the existing "/Debug" command line option.
• Addition of a DWORD* parameter to the CNTEventLogSource::GetStringArrayFromRegistry and CNTEventLogSource::SetStringArrayFromRegistry functions. This allow the details of the last error to be returned to client code.
• Addition of generic versions of CNTService::WriteProfileString, CNTService::WriteProfileInt, CNTService::WriteProfileStringArray, CNTService::WriteProfileBinary, CNTService::GetProfileString, CNTService::GetProfileInt, CNTService::GetProfileStringArray and CNTService::GetProfileBinary. These implementations allow the service name to be specified as well as the Flushing setting which is hidden by the other implementations. The existing implementations of these functions now simply call these new implementations. Providing these implementations now allows client code to read and write the settings for any service (including other instances of the same service) without the need to create a new CNTService instance.
• CNTServiceControlManager::EnumServices method now uses a void* parameter for its item data instead of a DWORD.
• Addition of a CNTService::EnumerateInstances method which allows you to enumerate all the instances of a service which have been installed using the new master / instance additions to the framework in this version. This could prove useful where you are writing configuration type applets which configure the settings for all the instances of your installed service.
• Addition of a new /U command line option which allows the user account which the service runs under to be configured.
• Addition of a new /P command line option which allows the password which the service is to run with to be configured.
• As a security precaution once the username and password strings have been used for installing, they are overwritten in memory.

v1.55 (14 August 2005)

• Fixed an issue where the SID and binary values was not being set correctly in the overloaded CEventLogRecord constructor which takes a EVENTLOGRECORD pointer. Thanks to Brian Lee for reporting this issue. Also the arrays which this information is copied into is now preallocated to improve performance.

v1.54 (31 July 2005)

• Provided an overridden version of CNTEventLogSource::Report which has 3 string parameters
• CNTEventLogSource::GetStringArrayFromRegistry and SetStringArrayIntoRegistry methods are now public as they are helpful to have available externally.

v1.53 (21 April 2005)

• CNTService::GetProfileInt and GetProfileString functions now includes an optional DWORD output parameter which when provided allows the value from GetLastError to be returned to client code. This allows code to distinguish between a default value which is returned because it is actually stored as opposed to returning a default value because some of the registry API's failed. Thanks to Tony Ronan for reporting this issue.

v1.52 (26 March 2005)

• Addition of a m_bProfileWriteFlush variable to the CNTService class which dictates if the registry settings should be committed immediately as opposed to relying on the lazy writer.

v1.51 (11 February 2005)

• Addition of a virtual GetEventLogSourceName method which allows the name of the event log source to be customized at runtime. Thanks to Bara Cek for requesting this addition.
• Updated the copyright details in all modules.
• Addition of true Visual Studio .NET 2003 files for the sample service (Testsrv.sln and Testsrv.vcproj)

v1.50 (11 November 2004)

• Fixed a futher 64 bit issue in CNTEventLogSource::SetStringArrayIntoRegistry when compiled in Visual Studio .Net. 
• Addition of a CNTSERVICE_EXT_CLASS preprocessor macro which allows the classes to be easily added to an extension dll

v1.49 (18 October 2004)

• Fixed a number of level 4 warnings in the framework when "Detect 64 bit portability issues" is enabled in Visual Studio .Net

v1.48 (15 October 2004)

• Framework now automatically installs a console ctrl handler when run in debug mode. This means that the framework will automatically call your service's OnStop method when running in debug mode if your service is built as a console app and you hit Ctrl+C or Ctrl+Break or hit the close button in the console window. This helps you to verify the shutdown code of your service without having to run the code as a service. Because the console ctrl handler is executed in a separate thread to ServiceMain, this simulation mode calls your OnStop method in a separate thread just like the SCM does. This proves very helpful when you need to debug shutdown problems in your service which are thread related.
• Added a few checks to various header files to warn if various header files have not already been included e.g. Afxmt.h. This helps avoid simple compilation problems when the framework is added to a new project initially.
• Sample app now uses the InterlockedExchange functions instead of a critical section to serialize access to variables used across multiple threads. In addition the "m_bPaused" variable of the sample app is now also marked as volatile
• Fixed a double declaration of "dwTypesSupported" in CNTEventLogSource::Install. In the process this fixes a level 4 warning which the code generated.

v1.47 (24 June 2004)

• Reissue of the last update as I forgot to declare _ServiceMain virtual Doh!
• Also made the class CNTServiceTerminateException visible in the global namespace. This is required if you implement your own _ServiceMain.

v1.46 (20 June 2004)

• Provided a new virtual implementation of CNTService::_ServiceMain. To achieve this the previous static _ServiceMain is now called "_SDKServiceMain". This allows your service code to completely customize the startup of your service. For example if you service does not require an active worker thread to do any work (e.g. it only ever responds to client requests thro the SCM using OnUserDefinedRequest), then you could implement your own version of _ServiceMain which does not call _ReportStatus(SERVICE_STOPPED... This would allow you to use RegisterWaitForSingleObject to implement your service clean up code. For more information on this type of service please consult the MSDN documentation on "RegisterWaitForSingleObject" and "ServiceMain". Thanks to Haug Leuschner for reporting this.

v1.45 (20 June 2004)

• Fixed a bug in CEventLogRecord::CEventLogRecord(const EVENTLOGRECORD*..) to do with the handling of inter string NULLs at the end of the record. Thanks to "yong" for reporting this problem.
• Optimized the code in CEventLogRecord::CEventLogRecord(const EVENTLOGRECORD*..).

v1.44 (5 May 2004)

• Fixed some warnings in CNTService::GetDependencies and CNTEventLogSource::SetStringArrayIntoRegistry when the code is compiled using the "Force conformance in For loop scope" VC compiler option (/Zc:forScope). Thanks to Alexey Kuznetsov for reporting this problem.

v1.43 (12 April 2004)

• Removed an unused variable in CNTScmService::WaitForServiceStatus. Thanks to Edward Livingston for reporting this issue.

v1.42 (9 April 2004)

• Further work to CNTScmService::WaitForServiceStatus. It now ignores pending states. In addition it ignores wait hints since we are calling QueryServiceStatus as opposed to calling the ControlService function with the SERVICE_CONTROL_INTERROGATE control code. It also allows the polling interval to be specified by a 3rd optional parameter. Thanks to Edward Livingston and "yong" for reporting this problem. Please note that since the third parameter to this function means something different that previously, you should review all of your calls to WaitForServiceStatus to ensure it continues to operate correctly.

v1.41 (18 March 2004)

• Fixed a bug in the CNTScmService::WaitForServiceStatus function which caused it to return TRUE even if the service failed to return the desired status (if pending status isn't the expected pending status.
• Also ensured that CNTScmService::WaitForServiceStatus does not wait past the requested timeout period. Thanks to Brodie Thiesfield for these bug reports and the fixes.

21 February 2004

• The Unicode version of the mc file has now been updated to include Korean resources. Thanks to Brodie Thiesfield for this update.

v1.40 (22 January 2004)

• Fixed a bug in CNTScmService::EnumDependents and CNTServiceControlManager::EnumServices where enumeration would continue even when the callback functions return FALSE. Thanks to Edward Livingston for spotting this.

13 January 2004

• Updated the declaration of the sample service's "m_bWantStop" variable to now be a variable. There is no change to the actual CNTService modules (bar copyright updates for the new year 2004)

v1.39 (26 November 2003)

• Now supports a /silent command line option. Using this setting in combination with for example /install will ensure that the framework does not display any message boxes or console output when an error occurs. Thanks to Metrich Frederic for this addition.
• Changed the return value from ProcessShellCommand from a BOOL to a DWORD. This value is now use to return an error code from the service exe when it exits. In combination with the /silent command line option, this allows third party programs such as installers control over the service instance via the exit code of the service. Again thanks to Metrich Frederic for this addition.
• Updated the sample app provided with the framework to show how client services can return the Win32 error code as now returned by ProcessShellCommand.

v1.38 (23 November 2003)

• Fixed a memory leak in CNTService::Debug when the service uses TerminateService to shutdown the service prematurely.

v1.37 (19 November 2003)

• Reworked the function Win32ErrorToString to include the string resource ID. Thanks to Brodie Thiesfield for suggesting this.
• Fixed CNTS_MSG_SERVICE_FAIL_PAUSE, CNTS_MSG_SERVICE_FAIL_CONTINUE and CNTS_MSG_SERVICE_FAIL_STOP event log entries which were not using the new Win32ErrorToString method. Thanks to Brodie Thiesfield for reporting this.
• Win32ErrorToString now includes a "bEventLog" parameter. When this is TRUE the function is being called to obtain the error which gets displayed in the event log, when FALSE, it is being used to display to the end user or the TRACE window

v1.36 (14 November 2003)

• The location where the message dll for the service is located can now be tweaked at runtime by filling in the CNTService::m_sMessageDll variable. Thanks to Brodie Thiesfield for this update.
• Reviewed all TRACE statements which use a CString parameter. Now explicitly casts the CString to a LPCTSTR. Thanks to Brodie Thiesfield for this update.
• Added a new CNTService::m_LoggingDetail variable. This in combination with a new method called CNTService::Win32ErrorToString allows more flexible control over how errors are logging to the event log. Thanks to Brodie Thiesfield for suggesting this update.
• command line arguments other than the "-debug" argument are passed through to ServiceMain() when running in debug mode. Thanks to Brodie Thiesfield for suggesting this update.

v1.35 (12 November 2003)

• Now includes a unicode MC file thanks to Brodie Thiesfield. To use this file, simply copy ntserv_msgU.mc over the ntserv_msg.mc file in the TestSrvMsg and modify the custom build step for the mc file in the TestSrvMsg project to include a -u command line option. This file also includes a Japanese translation of the default service event log strings which the sample service uses.

v1.34 (5 October 2003)

• Updated the Visual Studio.Net workspace to remove the "Without Platform SDK" configurations as they are not applicable.

v1.33 (4 October 2003)

• Updated the custom build steps to compile the mc file. Now uses the VC macro "$(InputPath)" instead of "$(InputDir)\$(InputName).mc".
• Removed a number of unreferenced variables level 4 warnings when compiled with VC.Net 2003.
• Provision of a specific workspace (Testsrv for Visual Studio.Net.dsw) which allows the sample service to be compiled cleanly out of the box with Visual Studio.Net 2000 or Visual Studio.Net 2003. The issue is that the format of various build macros such as $(InputDir) has changed from VC 6. Just select File -> Open Project in VS.Net and select "Testsrv for Visual Studio.Net.dsw".

v1.32 (8 September 2003)

• Moved all the defines which the framework requires into a separate header file. Thanks to Dima Polyakov for pointing out a compilation problem which occurred when you did not have the platform SDK installed which necessitated this change.
• Changed the ordering of the command line used to compile the MC file. This avoids a problem as reported by Rodrigo Oliveira Fernandez when using the framework in VC 7
• Fixed a compilation error related to the use of the preprocessor define NTSERV_EXCLUDE_VC6_WINSVC_DEFINES

v1.31 (15 August 2003)

• Optimized the string copying in CEventLogRecord::CEventLogRecord(const EVENTLOGRECORD* pRecord). A bug was reported in this area by Jeroen Walter but it looks like this is a documentation bug in current versions of the MSDN. This structure was defined correctly in some early versions of the MSDN.

v1.30 (3 August 2003)

• Improved the error handling and reporting in CNTService::SetServiceToStatus. Thanks to Jon Pawley for reporting this issue.

v1.29 (22 May 2003)

• Updated the way the sample service's message dll projects integrates the creation of the mc file. For detailed information on how to integrate mc files into Visual Studio, please see the CodeProject article http://www.codeproject.com/useritems/MCTutorial.asp. Please note that I did not follow the suggested settings as exactly outlined in this article as the message file's header file needs to be included into the NT service exe at compile time.

v1.28 (17 May 2003)

• Further tweaks to _ReportStatus to avoid intermittent crashes. See item 1 on 20-09-2002 for detailed info about the issue.
• Removed some unnecessary calls to locking the critical section

v1.27 (8 May 2003)

• Update to the Install and Uninstall methods to return the value from GetLastError(). This is useful for client code as it can be reset before the functions return.
• Command line now supports a /T: param which allows you to specify a timeout to use when doing an uninstall. This timeout is used to specify how long the code will wait if the service needs to be stopped.
• Broke down all the classes into their own modules. This allows you to pull in only the classes you require, if you are not using the main class CNTService.
• Removed all unnecessary TRACE statements throughout the framework as they sometimes reset the value as returned from GetLastError.

v1.26 (12 March 2003)

• Fixed a problem since user code can't call ReportStatus(SERVICE_STOPPED) there is no way to report startup or shutdown errors via dwWin32ExitCode or dwServiceSpecificExitCode. This has been resolved by adding a new protected function TerminateService to shut down the service in the event of a critical failure. This throws a private exception containing the exit codes which is caught by the framework in _ServiceMain (or the DebugService case of ProcessShellCommand). _ServiceMain then passes the codes on via _ReportStatus. Also since the dwWin32ExitCode and dwServiceSpecificExitCode arguments of ReportStatus can never be used these parameters have now been removed. Thanks to Jon Baggott for these 2 additions.
• Performed some minor tidy ups in the inclusion of header files by the framework

v1.25 (20 November 2002)

• Fixed 3 level 4 warnings when the code is compiled using VC.Net. Thanks to Ed Eichman for spotting this problem.

v1.24 (20 September 2002)

• Fixed an "issue" in calls to ReportStatusToSCM which your service should be calling in your ServiceMain. Specifically calling ReportStatusToSCM(SERVICE_STOPPED) looks like it elicits the behaviour that the SCM forcefully terminates your worker thread. This can cause issues when other code is executed after this call which uses something which is allocated on the worker threads stack. To fix this "issue" (I could not find any documentation on this behaviour) you should remove the single call to ReportStatusToSCM which uses the values "SERVICE_STOPPED" from the bottom of your service's ServiceMain function. To force you to do this, I have changed the name of the function "ReportStatusToSCM" to just "ReportStatus". This will mean that the compiler will force you to examine each call to this function and remove the one call as described above. The class framework now looks after reporting that your service has stopped to the SCM. Thanks to "Jim" for spotting this.

v1.23 (28 August 2002)

• Reviewed all TRACE statements in the code for correctness
• Added a parameter to CNTService::Install to allow the time to wait for the service to stop to be specified
• Added a CString parameter to the CNTService::Install and Uninstall methods to return a descriptive errors to callers.
• Addition of a new boolean variable to the CNTService class  to allow service to decide whether it should use GUI or Console calls to display status messages
• CNTService::ProcessShellCommand now displays error messages to the console or via a Message box when errors occur in install, uninstalling, starting, stopping, resuming and pausing the service.

v1.22 (27 August 2002)

• Made more functions virtual to allow greater end user customisation.
• All useful attributes in call to CreateService in CNTService::Install can now be modified without having to derive a custom version of CNTService::Install in your derived class.
• A boolean value is now provided to enable / disable event log integration

v1.21 (27 November 2001)

• Fixed an issue where the class fails to read any key that is readonly. This is a problem since Win2000 defaults access to HKLM for "normal"  users to readonly. Thanks to Hans-Georg Ulrich for spotting this problem.

v1.20 (9 August 2001)

• Updated SetStringArrayIntoRegistry and GetStringArrayIntoRegistry to be consistent with my other class CHKLM v1.11.

v1.19 (18 July 2001)

• Minor update to the sample code demonstrating the class framework.
• Due to VC 6 shipping with a Winsvc.h (The main NT service header file) which includes some but not all of the defines which the class requires you need to define a few preprocessor define to get the code to compile cleanly for your particular setup. Set the top of "ntserv.cpp" for the details.

v1.18 (15 July 2001)

• Fixed a problem when calling CreateService with pathnames which contain embedded spaces.

v1.17 (27 May 2001)

• Added methods to framework to support the new command line options -start, -pause, -continue and -stop. Thanks to Stefan Niemeyer for this great addition.
• Fixed a small issue in the testing of the CEventLogSource class in app.cpp.

v1.16 (16 May 2001)

• Thread protected code to CNTEventLogSource::Report.

v1.15 (8 January 2001)

• Now includes copyright message in the source code and documentation.
• CNTEventLogSource::Report now allows you to specify whether error codes should be displayed in Hex or as decimal
• Sample service sometimes did not display the stop event. This has been remedied by reporting to the event log before we report to the SCM.
• Framework has now been made independent of the need for the latest Platform SDK header files. You can now compile the code in VC 5 without the Plaform SDK having to be installed.

v1.14 (21 December 2000)

• Fixed a bug in CNTService::Uninstall() which was causing it to fail sometimes when the service was running.
• Made all the member variables of the CNTService class public but put them down below the "implementation" line ala the way standard MFC classes are declared.
• Added a new overridden version of CNTEventLogSource::Report.

v1.13 (28 July 2000)

• Fixed a project settings bug which was causing the following compiler error "fatal error C1083: Cannot open include file: 'ntserv_msg.h': No such file or directory".

v1.12 (21 June 2000)

• Minor change to a TRACE statement in RegisterCtrlHandler
• RegisterCtrlHandler is called automatically for you now, no need to call it in your derived version of ServiceMain
• Added a BOOL CNTEventLogSource::Report(WORD wType, LPCTSTR lspszString) method
• Fixed a bug where the sample service was not reporting its shutdown status to the SCM correctly.

v1.11 (19 June 2000)

• Added an ASSERT to ReportStatusToSCM for status handle == 0
• Fixed a number of other logic problems in ReportStatusToSCM
• Removed an unnecessary ASSERT in CNTEventLogSource::Report
• Sample service app now uses sound card default sound instead of PC speaker sound

v1.1 (21 May 2000)

• Added 2 new overridden versions of CNTEventLogSource::Report
• Tweaked and set default parameters in CNTService::ReportStatusToSCM following review of the book "Professional NT Services"
• Disallowed accepting any controls when the service is currently processing the same control in ReportStatusToSCM
• Change the ordering of parameters in ReportStatusToSCM. You should review your code to ensure it is correct if you have existing code
• Class framework now by default uses a DLL of the same name for the message file which the NT Event log will look to for mc string entries. This means that you should review your code to ensure it is correct if you have existing code
• CNTEventLogSource::Report now does not bother automatically creating a SID as this should be used for services which do impersonation for clients
• Changed the constructor of CNTEventLog which now takes the values it needs for calling Register
• CNTEventLog::Report methods are now no longer const because of change above.
• SCM database is now locked during installs and uninstalls of the service
• Now supports all the new functionality provided for services under Windows 2000 while preserving binary compatability with NT 3.x and NT 4 services.
• Framework now requires the presence of the January 2000 platform SDK or later. This is because of point above.
• Changed the prototype of the existing CNTScmService::QueryStatus function. 
• Made the typedefs for the enumeration functions private to their respective classes instead of polluting the global name space

v1.07 (10 April 2000)

• Fixed a bug with the calculation of buffer sizes when compiled for UNICODE in CNTEventLogSource::SetStringArrayIntoRegistry 

v1.06 (24 January 2000)

• Modified the way the mc file is included into the TestSrv.exe sample service. The mc file is now compiled into an intermediate "ntserv_msg.rc" file which is "#included" into the final rc file "testsrv.rc". This is done so that the "testsrc.rc" file can be edited by the resource designer inside Visual C++. In previous versions of CNTService, if your tried to edit the rc file (which was generated by the MC command line compiler), you would end up corrupting the file. If you are developing your own service using CNTService, then I would suggest you take this approach. What you need to do is create a resource script inside VC++, adding whatever resources you want to be in your services resources (e.g. version info's, strings etc), then bring up the resource includes dialog and modify the "Compile-Time directives" to "#include "ntserv_msg.rc" or your version of rc file which was generated by MC by compiling your .mc file. You should also check out the project settings in the demo service provided with CNTService to see how it handles compilation of the .mc file via a batch file (right mouse click on "ntserv_msg.mc" and select settings). 

v1.05 (10 October 1999)

• Added support for the description field which services can have on Windows 2000.
• Added accessor functions for the service name, friendly name and the description text.

v1.04 (5 October 1999)

• Fixed a problem compiling the mc file for release and Unicode build configurations.
• Fixed a level 4 warning when built using VC++ 6.

v1.03 (3 October 1999)

• Addition of GetProfileStringArray, WriteProfileStringArray, GetProfileBinary and WriteProfileBinary methods to the CNTService class.
• Renamed some module names.

v1.02 (5 September 1999)

• Addition of more ASSERT's statements to aid in debugging.

v1.01 (17 May 1999)

• Addition of a number of ASSERTs statements to aid in debugging.
• Fixed a bug in CNTEventLogSource::Report as reported by Marin Kunev
• Fixed a compiler warning when compiled with VC 6.

24 August 1998

• Minor update to the demo program (app.cpp) to get rid of a compiler error.

v1.0 (17 July 1998)

• Initial public release