Windows Service : Mystery of the Slow startup

I have this .NET service application that is always reported in EventViewer to be “not responding” or takes too long to start.

The problem occurs only when a reboot is done. If the service was stop/start after reboot the speed is normal but if it starts automatically after reboot it takes around 90 seconds just to get it started.

The app main task is just start a webserver and connects to it.

So here is the condition :

Starting the service manually after the reboot = fine

First time auto starting after reboot = 90 seconds delay and reported to be “not responding” or hang, but runs fine .

I have nailed the culprit to WebClient!  Thats right, using WebClient in your . NET code as a service will result in it starting up slowly, this might have to do with the possibility that System.Net.WebClient uses the shared components  of IE and also its host of registry entries. This is SUPER SLOW when you reboot the first time.

Solution : i wrote my own TCP code to mimic WebClient and discard using WebClient in a Service app.

Case  close.