Professional VB 2005 with .NET 3.0 (Programmer to Programmer)

This chapter presented a general overview of what a Windows Service is and how to create one with Visual Basic. The techniques in this chapter can be used for many different types of background service. A few examples are as follows:

• Automatically moving statistical files from a database server to a Web server

• Pushing general files across computers and platforms

• A watchdog timer to ensure that a connection is always available

• An application to move and process FTP files, or indeed files received from any source

While Visual Basic cannot be used to create every type of Windows Service, it is effective at creating many of the most useful ones. The .NET Framework classes for Windows Services make this creation relatively straightforward. The designers generate much of the routine code needed, and you, as a developer, can concentrate on the code that is specific to your particular Windows Service.