Set base directory of EXE when running as Windows Service

[asalhani]

Great tutorial, however, you need to add the below line in Main() method in order to set the working directory when running the EXE as a Windows service. Not adding will cause the Windows Service to fail since it will run under defult location( C:\Windows\System32) :

System.IO.Directory.SetCurrentDirectory(System.AppDomain.CurrentDomain.BaseDirectory);

[xt0rted]

I came across something similar and after looking through the docs I found this example:

var isService = !(Debugger.IsAttached || args.Contains("--console"));

if (isService)
{
    var pathToExe = Process.GetCurrentProcess().MainModule.FileName;
    var pathToContentRoot = Path.GetDirectoryName(pathToExe);
    Directory.SetCurrentDirectory(pathToContentRoot);
}

There's also a new package in .net core 3.0 called Microsoft.Extensions.Hosting.WindowsServices that handles most of this for you.

If you're using a single file exe and keeping the appsettings.json files alongside the exe then you need to call builder.UseContentRoot(pathToContentRoot) with the path of your exe (I'm using the code above for that).