Where will Console.writeline write to in a Windows Service application?

Question

I have a windows service application with many Console.writeline() statements.

Since it is running at background, I wonder where do all the output of Console.writeline() go to? Please enlighten me.

I promise to grade you. It is just that the system has some problems posting, replying and marking answer. Once it is Ok, I will deem my words.

Thanks

Answer 1

In a Windows Service there is no Console so Console.Write* output is discarded. There are a number of alternatives:

1. The System.Diagnostics.Trace class has a similar interface to the Console class so you could migrate your code quite easily to this. It can then be configured to output to a file.
2. You can use the System.Diagnostics.EventLog class to write to the Event Log which you can then monitor using Event Viewer.
3. You can use the third-party open-source log4net library which is very flexible.