Windows Service App Limitations

Does anybody know of, or able to point to documentation on, limitations when running an application as a Windows Service? For instance, I created one that captured the STDOUT from a shell execute… which worked in Console mode, but a no-go in Service mode. Also, ran across something else (but can no longer find it) that hard-coded paths (such as “c:\appdir\app.exe”) does not work in service mode. Any help about the "do and do not"s for Windows service applications would be appreciated.

Capturing shell output in service mode work fine.
A standalone WebApp it is a console application and when running as a Windows service is able to capture the shell output with no problems.

The second part of your question, hard coded paths, they work fine. I have written a few Windows services and use them all the time. I know It’s frowned upon to use them normally though. Make sure the service is running with sufficient privileges to access the path you need to access.

If the console version works with you logged in and you provide the service with your credentials then the service should also work fine. This is not ideal though, if your password is changed or account locked then the service is affected.

I’m not quite sure what you are referring to with the first part, capturing the STDOUT from a shell execute. If your’s using a Shell class in mode 0 then it should work fine. I have also done this.