As you said, you can provide command line arguments in the Services control panel / snap-in. If you need to configure the options in a different way, you could use a Windows Forms application that either uses registry settings or writes on a .config file (or other configuration file) for the service. You can use the ServiceController class to start, stop, or pause the service programmatically then. If you want to configure the options while the service is running, you need to use the ServiceController.ExecuteCommand to pass a command identifier. If you need to change more complex options, you can use .NET Remoting over a TCP or HTTP channel. -----BEGIN GEEK CODE BLOCK----- Version: 3.21 GCS/G/MU d- s: a- C++++ UL@ P++(+++) L+(--) E--- W+++ N++ o+ K? w++++ O- M(+) V? PS-- PE Y++ PGP++ t++@ 5 X+++ R+@ tv+ b(-)>b++ DI++++ D+ G e++>+++ h---* r+++ y+++ -----END GEEK CODE BLOCK-----