Windows – How to set adequate permissions to a scheduled task for a service controller query

I'm a programmer, but the problem encountered has stepped beyond the code and into the system administrator realm, at least that is what I think at this time. I will only use one bit of code to show where exactly the problem is encountered and I will also provide the command line alternative to what the code is essentially doing so if someone wishes to recreate the issue they can. I'm not the system administrator, but because I've been told it cannot be done without some workaround I've taken it upon myself to find the solution so I can move on the other tasks and not have to rewrite code or search for a programmatic solution. I've thought of C sharp user and permissions impersonation, but I would like to avoid that if possible.

The troubled program is a custom C sharp application, customApp.exe, running as a scheduled task on Server 2003. The issue is I have a C sharp application that checks its dependencies early in runtime. One of those dependencies is running as a service. I perform a query to verify the service is running. The act of checking the service running status causes the error. The failure is logged in the server event logs under security as a failure audit with notes regarding permissions as the cause of failure.

A dedicated service account exists for use to run the customApp.exe program. The rights are quite limited, but adequate for the application as seen during test runs. Problems are encountered when the application is run as a scheduled task.

The settings for the scheduled task that is failing are not viewable by me, but I've placed some checks into the debugger to verify proper settings. Basically I put in a whoami reporting line of code to verify the username and domain are correct. I also know the username, domain, and password must be correct because the application interfaces with a Microsoft SQL database which it is properly Selecting and Inserting from and to using Integrated Security in the connection string. The permissions settings are unknown to me, but I know that the system admin added the dedicated service account to the security tab under the specific scheduled task.

Here is the C# code snippet that is causing the fuss:

ServiceController sc = new ServiceController("Service Name Here");
            if (sc.Status != ServiceControllerStatus.Running)
            {

Here is a command prompt alternative that is essentially same as the code:

sc query "Service Name Here"

Running customApp.exe logged into the server under the dedicated service account results in success. Running the above command prompt "sc query "Service Name Here" results in success when logged in as well. Running customApp.exe as a scheduled task started at a specified time without intervention while I'm logged in remotely to the server under the dedicated service account results in success.

Running customApp.exe as a scheduled task under any other condition results in failure. This is probably the part that confuses me the most. As said before, it succeeds as a scheduled tasks while I'm logged in remotely with the dedicated user account, but fails otherwise.

It is noteworthy that I'm not trying to start or stop a windows service. I've discovered that requires admin rights which I'm not interested in harnessing that kind of power. I'm a firm believer in running the application with the most minimalistic rights required to get the job done.