Play wave file from a Windows Service (C#)

Question

I need to play a wav file from a C# application running as a Windows Service. I have tried both System.Media.SoundPlayer and a P/Invoke call to WinMM.dll (which is probably what SoundPlayer is doing).

[DllImport("WinMM.dll")]
private static extern bool PlaySound(string fname, int Mod, int flag); 

If I run my code as a console application, the sounds play. When I run it from a service, no luck, and I guess I'm not surprised.

So is there a way to play a sound from a windows service? Would something like DirectSound help? Or am I going to be stuck writing a console application and having the windows service app communicate with it as an intermediary?

Thanks in advance

Answer 1

Playing a wav file from a service is definitely possible, at least on Windows 7 (and most likely Vista), by using the Windows Core Audio APIs. I recently verified this by making a small test service using NAudio. I just downloaded the NAudio sources and copied the "Wsapi" parts from their NAudioDemo project. This was on Windows 7 Enterprise 64bit, but I don't think that matters. The service was using the LocalSystem account.
For the record, playing sounds from a service is a perfectly legitimate thing to do in an embedded setting.

Answer 2

Applied the NAudio to simply allow to play audio file.
http://bresleveloper.blogspot.co.il/2012/06/c-service-play-sound-with-naudio.html

Answer 3

You've chosen the wrong application type. A windows service is for longer running applications that execute non-interactively, whether or not someone has logged into the computer. For example SQL Server, IIS etc.

You are also prevented in Windows Vista and later, from displaying user interface windows from a windows service. For Windows XP,2000 Server and you can display a MessageBox, however this is not recommended for most services.

So in general, services are not permitted to be "interactive", this includes playing sounds, multimedia etc.

You either need to change the application type to a normal Console/Windows Forms application, or live without playing sounds from your service.

For more information see this page on interactive services and related pages at MSDN.

Answer 4

You can do this via the PlaySound API via winmm.dll, in Windows Vista or above. Microsoft added a seperate session for 'System Sounds' that can be used even from services, by merely adding a flag.

I've formatted this properly to avoid issues with the c# 2017 IDE throwing a wobbly over the DllImport not being in a class named 'NativeMethods'.

using System.Runtime.InteropServices;
namespace Audio
{
    internal static class NativeMethods
    {
        [DllImport("winmm.dll", EntryPoint = "PlaySound", SetLastError = true, CharSet = CharSet.Unicode, ThrowOnUnmappableChar = true)]
        public static extern bool PlaySound(
            string szSound,
            System.IntPtr hMod,
            PlaySoundFlags flags);

        [System.Flags]
        public enum PlaySoundFlags : int
        {
            SND_SYNC = 0x0000,/* play synchronously (default) */
            SND_ASYNC = 0x0001, /* play asynchronously */
            SND_NODEFAULT = 0x0002, /* silence (!default) if sound not found */
            SND_MEMORY = 0x0004, /* pszSound points to a memory file */
            SND_LOOP = 0x0008, /* loop the sound until next sndPlaySound */
            SND_NOSTOP = 0x0010, /* don't stop any currently playing sound */
            SND_NOWAIT = 0x00002000, /* don't wait if the driver is busy */
            SND_ALIAS = 0x00010000,/* name is a registry alias */
            SND_ALIAS_ID = 0x00110000, /* alias is a pre d ID */
            SND_FILENAME = 0x00020000, /* name is file name */
            SND_RESOURCE = 0x00040004, /* name is resource name or atom */
            SND_PURGE = 0x0040,  /* purge non-static events for task */
            SND_APPLICATION = 0x0080, /* look for application specific association */
            SND_SENTRY = 0x00080000, /* Generate a SoundSentry event with this sound */
            SND_RING = 0x00100000, /* Treat this as a "ring" from a communications app - don't duck me */
            SND_SYSTEM = 0x00200000 /* Treat this as a system sound */
        }
    }
    public static class Play
    {
        public static void PlaySound(string path, string file = "")
        {            
            NativeMethods.PlaySound(path + file, new System.IntPtr(), NativeMethods.PlaySoundFlags.SND_ASYNC | NativeMethods.PlaySoundFlags.SND_SYSTEM);
        }
    }
}