I’m working on a python app that, among other things, works to block common RCA applications. Because I want it to be able to run on start up and in the background, I figured the best way was to make it into a Windows Service. I know you can do things manually, like schedule the task via task manager, but I want it to run without that user involvement, so I decided to use pywin32.

With that in mind, let me tell you my issue: Installing the python script as a service works fine, you can see it added to the windows service manager, but starting the service is where the error comes in.

Svc_manager.py, which is what controls the service, just continuously tries to call the main function in scamwatch_main.py and is unable to. It times out when starting and then the service stays stuck in “Starting” and I have to kill it from the task manager.

I even tried renaming the main file to see if there was any call confusion since there’s a main function in both files, but that didn’t work. I also tried moving the service code into the main file instead, but that gave me more errors and just overall made everything worse. I’ve also tried restarting my computer after installing the service.

Debugging logs have not helped outside of it staying at “calling main from scamwatch_main.py”. Windows logs simply show that the service has started.

If you start the script up manually from the cmd line, it runs perfectly fine, so it has to be that connection from svg_manager.py, right? I feel like it’s probably something simple that I’m just missing, but I have no idea.

Anyway, here’s the svc_manager.py code:

# this file handles the pywin32 config for using ScamWatch as a service

import win32serviceutil
import win32service
import win32event
import servicemanager
import socket
from scamwatch_main import scamwatch_main
import logging
import os

class SWWinService(win32serviceutil.ServiceFramework):
    _svc_name_ = "ScamWatchService"
    _svc_display_name_ = "ScamWatch Service"

    def __init__(self, args):
        win32serviceutil.ServiceFramework.__init__(self, args)
        self.hWaitStop = win32event.CreateEvent(None, 0, 0, None)
        socket.setdefaulttimeout(180)

        log_dir = 'Log Directory Path'
        os.makedirs(log_dir, exist_ok=True)
        log_file = os.path.join(log_dir, 'ScamWatch.log')

        logging.basicConfig(
            filename=log_file,
            level=logging.DEBUG,
            format='%(asctime)s %(levelname)s: %(message)s'
        )
        logging.info("ScamWatch initialized Successfully")

    def SvcStop(self):
        self.ReportServiceStatus(win32service.SERVICE_STOP_PENDING)
        win32event.SetEvent(self.hWaitStop)
        logging.info('ScamWatch service stopping')

    def SvcRun(self):
        try:
            servicemanager.LogMsg(servicemanager.EVENTLOG_INFORMATION_TYPE, servicemanager.PYS_SERVICE_STARTED,
                                (self._svc_name_, ''))
            
            self.main()
        except Exception as e:
            logging.error(f"Exception in SvcRun: {e}")
            servicemanager.LogErrorMsg(f"Exception in SvcRun: {e}")
            self.SvcStop()
    
    def main(self):
        rc = None
        logging.info('ScamWatch service running')
        while rc != win32event.WAIT_OBJECT_0:
            try:
                logging.info("calling main from scamwatch_main.py")
                scamwatch_main.scamwatch_main()
            except Exception as e:
                logging.error(f"Exception in main loop: {e}")
            rc = win32event.WaitForSingleObject(self.hWaitStop, 3000)
        logging.info('Service stopped by exiting loop in svc_manager!')


if __name__ == '__main__':
    servicemanager.Initialize()
    servicemanager.PrepareToHostSingle(SWWinService)
    servicemanager.StartServiceCtrlDispatcher()

And then here’s my scamwatch_main.py code. Could the admin priv check be messing with it?

# This is the main executable for ScamWatch.
import threading
import time
import sys
import logging
import os
from process_blocking import monitor_process, one_time_connection
from elevate import is_admin, run_as_admin
from port_blocking import block_all_ports

def scamwatch_main():

    logging.info("ScamWatch is running!")

    # Check if in admin mode. If not, restart as admin
    if not is_admin() and "--elevated" not in sys.argv:
        logging.info("Attempting to restart with administrative privileges...")
        if run_as_admin():
            logging.info("Restarted with administrative privileges.")
            sys.exit(0)  # Terminate the current process to restart as admin
        else:
            logging.error("Failed to restart with administrative privileges.")
            sys.exit(1)
    
    try:

        # Check and block common remote connection ports
        logging.info("Blocking remote connection ports if needed...")
        block_all_ports()

        # Begin monitoring processes for common RCA App exes
        logging.info("Now monitoring for RCA applications. Don't worry, you're safe :)")
        monitor_thread = threading.Thread(target=monitor_process)
        monitor_thread.daemon = True
        monitor_thread.start()

    except KeyboardInterrupt:
        logging.info("ScamWatch has been stopped by user!")

    except Exception as e:

        logging.error(f"Something went wrong! Here's the error info: {e}")


# Run this script as an executable, not as a file to import
if __name__ == "__main__":
    scamwatch_main()

It’s a work in progress and needs to be cleaned up, but first priority is just to get the service to work lmao