Easy way to debug a Windows Service at startup

The typical way of debugging a Windows Service, is to attach a debugger to it after it has started. This does not work very well if one needs to debug code that only executes during the startup of the Windows Service. A useful technique I have used to debug Windows Services is to launch the debugger from the Windows Service itself if a DEBUG parameter is specified. For example:

protected override void OnStart(string[] args)

{

    // Only use this code in Debug mode.

    #if DEBUG

 

    List<string> arguments = new List<string>(args);

    if (arguments.Exists((arg) => arg.Equals("DEBUG",

        StringComparison.InvariantCultureIgnoreCase)))

    {

        // Launch Debugger if DEBUG argument is provided.

        System.Diagnostics.Debugger.Launch();

    }

 

    #endif

}