--- title: Host in a Windows Service author: tdykstra description: Learn how to host an ASP.NET Core application in a Windows Service. keywords: ASP.NET Core,Windows service,hosting ms.author: tdykstra manager: wpickett ms.date: 03/30/2017 ms.topic: article ms.assetid: d9a65066-d7cb-47df-b046-64629c4d2c6f ms.technology: aspnet ms.prod: aspnet-core uid: hosting/windows-service --- # Host an ASP.NET Core app in a Windows Service By [Tom Dykstra](https://github.com/tdykstra) The recommended way to host an ASP.NET Core app on Windows when you don't use IIS is to run it in a [Windows Service](https://docs.microsoft.com/dotnet/framework/windows-services/introduction-to-windows-service-applications). That way it can automatically start after reboots and crashes, without waiting for someone to log in. [View or download sample code](https://github.com/aspnet/Docs/tree/master/aspnetcore/hosting/windows-service/sample) ([how to download](xref:tutorials/index#how-to-download-a-sample)). See the [Next Steps](#next-steps) section for instructions on how to run it. ## Prerequisites * The app must run on the .NET Framework runtime. In the *.csproj* file, specify appropriate values for [TargetFramework](https://docs.microsoft.com/nuget/schema/target-frameworks) and [RuntimeIdentifier](https://docs.microsoft.com/dotnet/articles/core/rid-catalog). Here's an example: [!code-xml[](windows-service/sample/AspNetCoreService.csproj?range=3-6)] When creating a project in Visual Studio, use the **ASP.NET Core Application (.NET Framework)** template. * If the app will get requests from the internet (not just from an internal network), it must use the [WebListener](xref:fundamentals/servers/weblistener) web server rather than [Kestrel](xref:fundamentals/servers/kestrel). Kestrel must be used with IIS for edge deployments. For more information, see [When to use Kestrel with a reverse proxy](xref:fundamentals/servers/kestrel#when-to-use-kestrel-with-a-reverse-proxy). ## Getting started This section explains the minimum changes required to set up an existing ASP.NET Core project to run in a service. * Install the NuGet package [Microsoft.AspNetCore.Hosting.WindowsServices](https://www.nuget.org/packages/Microsoft.AspNetCore.Hosting.WindowsServices/). * Make the following changes in `Program.Main`: * Call `host.RunAsService` instead of `host.Run`. * If your code calls `UseContentRoot`, use a path to the publish location instead of `Directory.GetCurrentDirectory()` [!code-csharp[](windows-service/sample/Program.cs?name=ServiceOnly&highlight=3-4,8,14)] * Publish the application to a folder. Use [dotnet publish](https://docs.microsoft.com/dotnet/articles/core/tools/dotnet-publish) or a [Visual Studio publish profile](xref:publishing/web-publishing-vs) that publishes to a folder. * Test by creating and starting the service. Open an administrator command prompt window to use the [sc.exe](https://technet.microsoft.com/library/bb490995) command-line tool to create and start a service. If you name your service MyService, you publish your app to `c:\svc`, and the app itself is named AspNetCoreService, the commands would look like this: ```console sc create MyService binPath="C:\Svc\AspNetCoreService.exe" sc start MyService ``` The `binPath` value is the path to your app's executable, including the executable filename itself. ![Console window create and start example](windows-service/_static/create-start.png) When these commands finish, you can browse to the same path as when you run as a console app (by default, `http://localhost:5000`) ![Running in a service](windows-service/_static/running-in-service.png) ## Provide a way to run outside of a service It's easier to test and debug when you're running outside of a service, so it's customary to add code that calls `host.RunAsService` only under certain conditions. For example, you could run as a console app if you get a `--console` command-line argument or if the debugger is attached. [!code-csharp[](windows-service/sample/Program.cs?name=ServiceOrConsole)] ## Handle stopping and starting events If you want to handle `OnStarting`, `OnStarted`, and `OnStopping` events, make the following additional changes: * Create a class that derives from `WebHostService`. [!code-csharp[](windows-service/sample/CustomWebHostService.cs?name=NoLogging)] * Create an extension method for `IWebHost` that passes your custom `WebHostService` to `ServiceBase.Run`. [!code-csharp[](windows-service/sample/WebHostServiceExtensions.cs?name=ExtensionsClass)] * In `Program.Main` change call the new extension method instead of `host.RunAsService`. [!code-csharp[](windows-service/sample/Program.cs?name=HandleStopStart&highlight=26)] If your custom `WebHostService` code needs to get a service from dependency injection (such as a logger), you can get it from the `Services` property of `IWebHost`. [!code-csharp[](windows-service/sample/CustomWebHostService.cs?name=Logging&highlight=7)] ## Next steps The [sample application](https://github.com/aspnet/Docs/tree/master/aspnetcore/hosting/windows-service/sample) that accompanies this article is a simple MVC web app that has been modified as shown in preceding code examples. To run it in a service, do the following steps: * Publish to *c:\svc*. * Open an administrator window. * Enter the following commands: ```console sc create MyService binPath="c:\svc\aspnetcoreservice.exe" sc start MyService ``` * In a browser, go to http://localhost:5000 to verify that it's running. If the app doesn't start up as expected when running in a service, a quick way to make error messages accessible is to add a logging provider such as the [Windows EventLog provider](xref:fundamentals/logging#eventlog). ## Acknowledgments This article was written with the help of sources that were already published. The earliest and most useful of them were these: * [Hosting ASP.NET Core as Windows service](https://stackoverflow.com/questions/37346383/hosting-asp-net-core-as-windows-service/37464074) * [How to host your ASP.NET Core in a Windows Service](https://dotnetthoughts.net/how-to-host-your-aspnet-core-in-a-windows-service/)