Safely setting service startup type to "Automatic (Delayed Start)"

[Tyler-Duckworth]

Hi!

I'm in the process of creating a WiX v4 installer to install a Windows Service with a default Startup Type of "Automatic (Delayed Start)". I have been able to get it working using the DelayedAutoStart attribute in the (non-util) ServiceConfig element (docs), but it does result in a WIX1149 warning about the functionality not working correctly in MSI 5.0 that recommends util:ServiceConfig (docs) instead.

However, I do not see any fields in util:ServiceConfig related to the starting of the service. Is there a way in WiX to do this without potentially using this incomplete functionality? (I've considered doing a custom action that calls sc.exe but didn't know if there was a more 'recommended' way to do it)

[Tyler-Duckworth]

Hey! I wanted to comment on this and see if anyone had been able to see this post at all. It's been a little over a month since I posted this and so far I haven't been able to find out a recommended way to set up the delayed start to a Windows Service in WiX.

[Tyler-Duckworth]

@robmen, do you know if there's a way you would recommend handling this warning?

Apologies for the @, but I posted this a while ago and haven't gotten any response from anyone.

[robmen]

Yeah, I'm busy with customers at this time. Other volunteers get busy for lots of different reasons. If you want guaranteed answers, be a customer.

[Tyler-Duckworth]

Yeah, I'm busy with customers at this time. Other volunteers get busy for lots of different reasons. If you want guaranteed answers, be a customer.

Hi. I wanted to touch base with this, since it's been around 6 months since I posted the initial question.

Does anyone know of a recommended way to create a Service with an "Automatic (Delayed Start)" without causing any incomplete functionality?

[yerald231ger]

Hi Tyler. How did you get install a project as a service? I've been searching documentations about it, but i can't find use full info.

[Tyler-Duckworth]

There are a few ways. Here are some good tutorials I found:

• Rob Mensching (one of the main devs), has a YouTube video for how to do it with v4 (source)
• There is a tutorial on the old v3 docs (source).

There doesn't seem to be a dedicated page on Windows Services with WiX on the new docs other than API documentation for the tags you can use. Hope this helps!

[felipecrs]

@Tyler-Duckworth I have no relationship with this project but found your question when Google-searching.

I believe ServiceConfig is the ideal way to handle it.

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Source - https://stackoverflow.com/a/9158372
Posted by Matt Sharpe, modified by community. See post 'Timeline' for change history
Retrieved 2025-11-12, License - CC BY-SA 4.0
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<ServiceConfig DelayedAutoStart="yes" OnInstall="yes" OnReinstall ="yes" />

Taken from https://stackoverflow.com/a/9158372/12156188.