Visual Studio 2008 Standard does not have a “service” project template
I was out on a work trip a few weeks ago and ran into quite a issue while trying to create a new windows service project in visual studio 2008. Quite simply, the template for the service project type does not exist.
After much searching I have discovered that this project type only exists in the Professional and Team System Editions of Visual Studio. This is kind of a bummer, because we develop a lot of services and tend to buy the standard edition for client machines.
However, there is a workaround or two. If you create your project on another machine (dev box) you can move your source and solution files to a machine running the standard edition without worry.
If you are a developer and stuck with only the standard edition then you just need what I call a dummy service file. It’s a service that was named and saved, but no code written. Just get someone to make you that and keep it on your machine if your spec calls for a service.
I am also told that you can extract the template file from a higher level edition of Visual Studio and then import that template into your Standard Edition install. However, after many tries to import environment settings I gave up and used the dummy project so I could just get to work.
Hopefully this helps someone if you find yourself looking for answers to this predicament.
The only question that remains is “Microsoft, why would you take this out of one of the most commonly sold editions of your product?” It can’t be because of the money, because you already have tons of that.