Issues with using ControlService(hService, CustomCommand) and VISTA/Windows7?

[Shaitan00]

I currently have a Windows Service written in C# .NET 2.0 which is automatically started and runs under the LocalSystem account - lets call it Serv.exe - this service is responsible for performing administrative tasks (a bunch of them).

There is another application (lets call it A.exe written in C++) which is run under the USER account (non-administrator), this application communicates with the Service (Serv.exe), using custom commands (ControlService(hService, CustomCommand) to tell it what task to perform.

Now - this all works perfectly fine right now, using Windows 2000 and XP - but will this cause problem when migrating to VISTA and Windows7? I know people mentioned that in Vista services run in a different session (not exactly sure what that entails) - will there be any issues using ControlService(...) under OS's past XP?

Key point to recall is that A.exe (non-admin user account) is communicating with Serv.exe (Local System service) to perform tasks like:
- copy files, delete files, move files
- extract files, zip files
- run setup.exe's, apply .MSI files
- register COM objects
- affecting the registry
- etc...
(pretty much anything you could image)

I need to know if there will be porting problems, if so I'll completly change my approach now (while I have the time).
(and use Named Pipes instead)

The reason I was using ControlService(...) instead of Pipes or Sockets is due to the fact that I only communicate with the service once every 20-30mins and only to request a specific operation be performed (simply send a single integer one-way), I thought pipes/sockets might be overkill for my needs ... I could be wrong ...

Looking for some advice, any help would be much appreciated...
Thanks,

[webJose]

The main change from XP to Vista service-wise is the fact that services can no longer present a user interface to the logged-on user. All services run in a different window station, I think, and therefore a different desktop. Any attempts to show something will be futile.

But that's about it, I think. Custom commands should still be supported. The best you can do, though, would be to install a test PC with Windows Vista or 7 and try it yourself.

As for named pipes, I like them because they are versatile, allow multiple connections, and are securable objects. You can limit, for example, the write access to the pipe to members of your domain, or even a specific security group, like assigning permissions to a file. I'm not sure if custom commands have any kind of security?