building a service application at the same time as desktop app

[Claire]

I am writing a service that sits on a single pc. It does occasional work to
a database eg logging users out after time period, sends emails in the
background, processes scheduled jobs etc
Its part of a larger project. To date I've kept the service solution
separate from the desktop solution but I think I'd like to combine the two
as they're sharing so much code.
Is this an ok thing to do?
Is it possible to have 2 executables into one solution? It would make it
much easier for me to keep them in synch if so.
I've created a setup project for each one as they're in two solutions. Can I
have 2 setups in the same solution? (Using win installer that comes with
visual studio 2005)
Is there any way, using what comes with visual studio, that someone
installing the software can choose whether to install none/either/both
applications easily from a single setup?

thanks
Claire

 

[Nicholas Paldino [.NET/C# MVP]]

Claire,

You could combine the solutions into one, but you are still going to
have separate projects in the solution corresponding to your desktop app and
your service app.

To that, I would add a (or a number) of class library applications which
would encapsulate the shared functionality between the two. Then, you would
set references to that (or those) class libraries, and begin to move the
shared code from the two separate projects to the library projects.