Error 5 : Access Denied when starting windows service

Question

I\'m getting this error when I try to start a windows service I\'ve created in C#:

My Code

Answer 1

I got the solution:

1. Go to local service window(where all services found)
2. Just right click on your service name: 
3. click on "properties" 
4. go to "log on" tab
5. select "local system account"
6. click "ok"

now you can try to start the service.

Answer 2

I don't know if my answer would make sense to many, but I too faced the same issue and the solution was outrageously simple. All I had to do was to open the program which I used to run the code as an administrator. (right-click --> Run as Administrator).

That was all.

Answer 3

if you are a having an access denied error code 5. then probably in your code your service is trying to interact with some files in the system like writing to a log file

open the services properties select log on tab and check option to allow service to interact with the desktop,

Answer 4

Your code may be running in the security context of a user that is not allowed to start a service.

Since you are using WCF, I am guessing that you are in the context of NETWORK SERVICE.

see: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/256299

Answer 5

For the error 5, i did the opposite to the solution above. "The first Error 5: Access Denied error was resolved by giving permissions to the output directory to the NETWORK SERVICE account."

I changed mine to local account, instead of network service account, and because i was logged in as administrator it worked

Answer 6

After banging my had against my desk for a few hours trying to figure this out, somehow my "Main" method got emptied of it's code!

ServiceBase[] ServicesToRun;
ServicesToRun = new ServiceBase[] 
{ 
    new DMTestService()
};
ServiceBase.Run(ServicesToRun);

Other solutions I found:

• Updating the .NET framework to 4.0

• Making sure the service name inside the InitializeComponent() matches the installer service name property

  private void InitializeComponent()
  ...
  this.ServiceName = "DMTestService";
  

• And a nice server restart doesn't hurt

Szhlopp