diff --git a/ServiceManager/ServiceManager.cs b/ServiceManager/ServiceManager.cs
index 6a613bb7e5..cd15722bc5 100644
--- a/ServiceManager/ServiceManager.cs
+++ b/ServiceManager/ServiceManager.cs
@@ -1,6 +1,8 @@
 using System;
 using System.Threading;
 using System.ServiceProcess;
+using System.Xml;
+using System.IO;
 
 public class OpenGridMasterService : System.ServiceProcess.ServiceBase {
 
@@ -21,11 +23,48 @@ public class OpenGridMasterService : System.ServiceProcess.ServiceBase {
 
 	protected override void OnStart(string[] args)
 	{
-		
-		
+		ServiceWorkerThread = new Thread(new ThreadStart(MainServiceThread));		
+		ServiceWorkerThread.Start();
+	}
+
+	protected override void OnStop()
+	{
+		ServiceWorkerThread.Abort();
+	}
+
+	private void MainServiceThread()
+	{
+	 try {	
+	    StreamReader reader=new  StreamReader("opengrid-master-cfg.xml");
+	    
+	    string configxml = reader.ReadToEnd();
+	    XmlDocument doc = new XmlDocument();
+            doc.LoadXml(configxml);
+            XmlNode rootnode = doc.FirstChild;
+            if (rootnode.Name != "regions")
+            {
+                EventLog.WriteEntry("ERROR! bad XML in opengrid-master-cfg.xml - expected regions tag");
+       		Console.WriteLine("Sorry, could not startup the service - please check your opengrid-master-cfg.xml file: missing regions tag");
+		(new ServiceController("OpenGridServices-master")).Stop();
+	    }
+
+	    for(int i=0; i<=rootnode.ChildNodes.Count; i++)
+	    {
+	   	if(rootnode.ChildNodes.Item(i).Name != "region") {
+			EventLog.WriteEntry("nonfatal error - unexpected tag inside regions block of opengrid-master-cfg.xml");
+			(new ServiceController("OpenGridServices-master")).Stop();
+		}
+	    }
+	 } catch(Exception e) {
+	    Console.WriteLine(e.ToString());
+	    (new ServiceController("OpenGridServices-master")).Stop();
+	 }
+	
 	}
 
 	public static void Main()
 	{
+		Console.WriteLine("Starting up OGS master service");
+		ServiceBase.Run(new OpenGridMasterService());
 	}
 }