Automatically start a Windows Service on install

In your Installer class, add a handler for the AfterInstall event. You can then call the ServiceController in the event handler to start the service.

using System.ServiceProcess;
public ServiceInstaller()
{
    //... Installer code here
    this.AfterInstall += new InstallEventHandler(ServiceInstaller_AfterInstall);
}

void ServiceInstaller_AfterInstall(object sender, InstallEventArgs e)
{
    ServiceInstaller serviceInstaller = (ServiceInstaller)sender;

    using (ServiceController sc = new ServiceController(serviceInstaller.ServiceName))
    {
             sc.Start();
    }
}

Now when you run InstallUtil on your installer, it will install and then start up the service automatically.

How about following commands?

net start "<service name>"
net stop "<service name>"

After refactoring a little bit, this is an example of a complete windows service installer with automatic start:

using System.ComponentModel;
using System.Configuration.Install;
using System.ServiceProcess;

namespace Example.of.name.space
{
[RunInstaller(true)]
public partial class ServiceInstaller : Installer
{
    private readonly ServiceProcessInstaller processInstaller;
    private readonly System.ServiceProcess.ServiceInstaller serviceInstaller;

    public ServiceInstaller()
    {
        InitializeComponent();
        processInstaller = new ServiceProcessInstaller();
        serviceInstaller = new System.ServiceProcess.ServiceInstaller();

        // Service will run under system account
        processInstaller.Account = ServiceAccount.LocalSystem;

        // Service will have Automatic Start Type
        serviceInstaller.StartType = ServiceStartMode.Automatic;

        serviceInstaller.ServiceName = "Windows Automatic Start Service";

        Installers.Add(serviceInstaller);
        Installers.Add(processInstaller);
        serviceInstaller.AfterInstall += ServiceInstaller_AfterInstall;            
    }
    private void ServiceInstaller_AfterInstall(object sender, InstallEventArgs e)
    {
        ServiceController sc = new ServiceController("Windows Automatic Start Service");
        sc.Start();
    }
}
}