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Windows Service Patterns

Windows Services are special applications designed to run unattended on your PC. A service an do virtually anything its programmer demands, such as reading files, sending email, checking for viruses — whatever. Yet in the midst of that tremendous diversity, … Continue reading

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Essential Windows Services: Power

In this article… What is the Power service? Is it safe to disable the Power service? The “Stop” button is disabled. How can I stop the Power service? What will happen if I kill the Power service’s process? The Power … Continue reading

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Q&A: How Do I Give my Windows Service More Time to Stop During Shutdown?

  One of our file ingestion services can take a while to finish all pending database updates and exit cleanly. Sometimes when we reboot the server, Windows doesn’t wait for the service to finish, and we end up with database corruption, … Continue reading

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Essential Windows Services: DcomLaunch / DCOM Server Process Launcher

In this article… What is the DcomLaunch (DCOM Server Process Launcher) service? What happens if I stop the DcomLaunch service? Questions? Problems? What is the DcomLaunch (DCOM Server Process Launcher) service? The DcomLaunch service implements Microsoft’s Component Object Model (COM) … Continue reading

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