| Platform SDK: DLLs, Processes, and Threads |
The StartService function starts a service.
BOOL StartService( SC_HANDLE hService, // handle to service DWORD dwNumServiceArgs, // number of arguments LPCTSTR *lpServiceArgVectors // array of arguments );
If the function succeeds, the return value is nonzero.
If the function fails, the return value is zero. To get extended error information, call GetLastError.
The following error codes can be set by the service control manager. Others can be set by the registry functions that are called by the service control manager.
| Error code | Meaning |
|---|---|
| ERROR_ACCESS_DENIED | The specified handle was not opened with SERVICE_START access. |
| ERROR_INVALID_HANDLE | The specified handle is invalid. |
| ERROR_PATH_NOT_FOUND | The service binary file could not be found. |
| ERROR_SERVICE_ALREADY_RUNNING | An instance of the service is already running. |
| ERROR_SERVICE_DATABASE_LOCKED | The database is locked. |
| ERROR_SERVICE_DEPENDENCY_DELETED | The service depends on a service that does not exist or has been marked for deletion. |
| ERROR_SERVICE_DEPENDENCY_FAIL | The service depends on another service that has failed to start. |
| ERROR_SERVICE_DISABLED | The service has been disabled. |
| ERROR_SERVICE_LOGON_FAILED | The service could not be logged on. This error occurs if the service was started from an account that does not have the "Log on as a service" right. |
| ERROR_SERVICE_MARKED_FOR_DELETE | The service has been marked for deletion. |
| ERROR_SERVICE_NO_THREAD | A thread could not be created for the service. |
| ERROR_SERVICE_REQUEST_TIMEOUT | The process for the service was started, but it did not call StartServiceCtrlDispatcher, or the thread that called StartServiceCtrlDispatcher may be blocked in a control handler function. |
When a driver service is started, the StartService function does not return until the device driver has finished initializing.
When a service is started, the service control manager spawns the service process, if necessary. If the specified service shares a process with other services, the required process may already exist. The StartService function does not wait for the first status update from the new service, because it can take a while. Instead, it returns when the service control manager receives notification from the service control dispatcher that the ServiceMain thread for this service was created successfully.
The service control manager sets the following default status values before returning from StartService:
The calling process can determine if the new service has finished its initialization by calling the QueryServiceStatus function periodically to query the service's status.
A service cannot call StartService during initialization. The reason is that the service control manager locks the service control database during initialization, so a call to StartService will block. Once the service reports to the service control manager that it has successfully started, it can call StartService.
Windows NT/2000: Requires Windows NT 3.1 or later.
Header: Declared in Winsvc.h; include Windows.h.
Library: Use Advapi32.lib.
Unicode: Implemented as Unicode and ANSI versions on Windows NT/2000.
Services Overview, Service Functions, ControlService, CreateService, OpenService, QueryServiceStatus, ServiceMain