diff --git a/src/Core/WinSWCore/ServiceDescriptor.cs b/src/Core/WinSWCore/ServiceDescriptor.cs
index e4b0bb0..5845843 100755
--- a/src/Core/WinSWCore/ServiceDescriptor.cs
+++ b/src/Core/WinSWCore/ServiceDescriptor.cs
@@ -67,7 +67,7 @@ namespace winsw
 
             try
             {
-                ValidateAndLoadXmlSchema();
+                ValidateAndLoadXmlSchema(GetXMLReader());
             }
             catch (XmlException e)
             {
@@ -101,7 +101,7 @@ namespace winsw
             this.dom = dom;
         }
 
-        public void ValidateAndLoadXmlSchema()
+        public void ValidateAndLoadXmlSchema(XmlReader reader)
         {
             XmlReaderSettings settings = new XmlReaderSettings();
 
@@ -117,11 +117,13 @@ namespace winsw
 
             settings.ValidationType = ValidationType.Schema;
             settings.ValidationEventHandler += new ValidationEventHandler(XmlValidationEventHandler);
-            
-            using(XmlReader reader = XmlReader.Create(BasePath + ".xml"))
-            {
-                dom.Load(reader);
-            }
+
+            dom.Load(reader);
+        }
+
+        private XmlReader GetXMLReader()
+        {
+            return XmlReader.Create(BasePath + ".xml");
         }
 
         private void XmlValidationEventHandler(object sender, ValidationEventArgs e)
diff --git a/src/Test/winswTests/ServiceDescriptorTests.cs b/src/Test/winswTests/ServiceDescriptorTests.cs
index 9374d29..d47a17a 100644
--- a/src/Test/winswTests/ServiceDescriptorTests.cs
+++ b/src/Test/winswTests/ServiceDescriptorTests.cs
@@ -1,6 +1,7 @@
 using System;
 using System.Diagnostics;
 using System.IO;
+using System.Xml;
 using NUnit.Framework;
 using winsw;
 using winsw.Native;
@@ -455,15 +456,8 @@ $@"<service>
 
             var serviceDescriptor = ServiceDescriptor.FromXML(seedXml);
 
-            try
-            {
-                serviceDescriptor.ValidateAndLoadXmlSchema();
-                Assert.Fail();
-            }
-            catch (FileNotFoundException)
-            {
-                Assert.Pass();
-            }
+            var reader = XmlReader.Create(new StringReader(seedXml));
+            serviceDescriptor.ValidateAndLoadXmlSchema(reader);
         }
     }
 }