Send string commands or bytes to a Windows Service? (When running)

Question

Is there any way to give string or byte array commands to a Windows Service? (When running)

Answer 1

You can send start, restart and stop commands to the service, and I belive you can execute other defined commands as well.

Here is an example of programatically starting a registered service called "myService"

using System.ServiceProcess;
//...
            System.ServiceProcess.ServiceController Service;
            Service = new ServiceController("myService");
            if (Service != null && Service.Status == ServiceControllerStatus.Stopped)
                    Service.Start();
//...

Look in SeviceController. You are probably looking for:

    //
    // Summary:
    //     Executes a custom command on the service.
    //
    public void ExecuteCommand(int command);

It's my understanding though that these commands need to be predefined. You cannot pass arbrary commands to the services, i.e., this is not a method of passing data.