Wix: Stopping a Windows Service on uninstall - windows-services

Question

When I uninstall my service I get the error where it says I have to stop such and such service before uninstalling. This is unsatisfactory - the uninstaller should automatically stop it.
I found a blog or newsgroup posting on this months ago and got it to work properly, but now it has stopped working for me. And I don't have a link to the post... maybe someone else know where it is? :) I guess I changed some subtle thing and it stopped working. I find Wix extremely difficult to troubleshoot.
I am using the following include to fetch the property X_ WIN_ SERVICE_ NAME (sorry I don't know how to avoid _ escaping here) from the registry. It doesn't matter on install because in that case I explicitly set it with an input file. This include is used before any components in my wxs file.
<Include xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/wix/2006/wi">
<?ifndef SetupXWinServiceRegistryProperties ?>
<?define SetupXWinServiceRegistryProperties ?>
<?define XWinServiceRegistryKey='Software\X\Y'?>
<Property Id="X_WIN_SERVICE_NAME">
<RegistrySearch Id="XWinServiceNameSearch"
Root="HKLM"
Key="$(var.XWinServiceRegistryKey)"
Name="ServiceName"
Type="raw"/>
</Property>
<?endif?>
</Include>
The following include component is used to save the registry value on install:
<Include xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/wix/2006/wi">
<?ifndef WriteXWinServiceRegistryProperties ?>
<?define WriteXWinServiceRegistryProperties ?>
<Component Id="CompWriteXWinServiceRegistryProps"
Guid="some guid">
<!-- Write properties to the registry. Then they will be
accessable during uninstall. -->
<RegistryValue Root="HKLM"
Key="$(var.XWinServiceRegistryKey)"
Name="ServiceName"
Type="string"
Value="[X_WIN_SERVICE_NAME]"
Action="write" />
</Component>
<?endif?>
</Include>
I have checked my system after install and the registry value is properly written there. The part in my component where the service is setup looks like:
<ServiceInstall Id="ServiceInstallXWinService"
Name="[X_WIN_SERVICE_NAME]"
Start="auto"
DisplayName="xxx"
Description="yyy"
Account="[X_WIN_SERVICE_USER]"
Password="[X_WIN_SERVICE_PASSWORD]"
Type="ownProcess"
ErrorControl="normal"
Vital="yes" />
<ServiceControl Id="ServiceInstallXWinService"
Name="[X_WIN_SERVICE_NAME]"
Stop="both"
Remove="uninstall"
Wait="yes" />
Any ideas?

Answer 1

Are you sure that the X_WIN_SERVICE_NAME property is set to the correct value on uninstall. Use a verbose log file to make sure that the search is setting the value correctly. Everything looks fine (although I don't know why you put everything in Include files instead of just using Fragments).