How to make my program a background process.

Question

I wrote a program in C# .NET, that needs to be run in the background. I mean it should have any user interface. Neither a GUI nor a CLI. It is not also a windows service(because it must run only after user has logged in).

It should just run in background. example of such programs are AdobeUpdater.exe , GoogleUpdater.exe etc.

Answer 1

Use Task Scheduler to run it on a schedule (which can be based on when user logs in). Or add it to the registry to run on startup.

HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run

Answer 2

Another option would be to create a Windows Application and set these two properties:

        this.WindowState = FormWindowState.Minimized;
        this.ShowInTaskbar = false;

Answer 3

You can create a Console application, and then change it's properties in the project settings to a Windows application (rather than console). Or you can create a Windows Forms application that ddoesn't actually create any forms.

Answer 4

You might reconsider using a Windows service and having it monitor for logon/logoff events using the System.Management.ManagementEventWatcher class. This gives an example of a logoff event watcher: http://social.msdn.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/netfxbcl/thread/0c1bded8-0cce-4260-bd28-4b4ffce0d27d.