C# - Windows Service installer fails in custom action

We install a windows service from a custom action as described here: CodeProject

Every so often, when uninstalling our application, it does not properly uninstall the service. Instead it "marks the service for deletion".

You can see this message by running installutil.exe /u on our executable, when it is supposedly uninstalled.

Has anyone seen this issue o开发者_Go百科r know a workaround? If a service is somehow installed with the same name as ours, we'd like to replace it. Instead the msi setup fails, giving a message saying our service is already installed.

Is there a way to do it without making a custom action to first uninstall any existing instances of our service's name before running the install custom action?

Is the service control panel (services.msc) open while you uninstall? This prevents your service from correctly being uninstalled.

If nothing else helps a reboot might be required as recommended in this article (though originally applying to .NET 1.1).

Check, if your service correctly stops additional thread(s) started from the service.