Run an application as a service with Srvany

From: Windows 2000 Tips at TechRepublic.com. “In Windows, services are applications that perform specific functions. For example, the Workstation service creates and manages connections to other computers on the network. Windows includes several services of its own, and many application vendors add their own services to Windows as part of their applications. For example, the remote-access tool VNC installs a VNC Server service to enable incoming remote connections to the computer. While some applications don’t install automatically as services, you can certainly run them as a service. Here are some of the benefits to running an application as a service: It starts automatically and runs in the background; It stays running even when the user logs off; It can run in a security context other than the current user.

Keep in mind that some applications will still terminate at logoff even when running as services as they do not ignore the WM_ENDSESSION or CTRL_LOGOFF_EVENT messages. You can configure an application to run as a service by using the Srvany tool, which is part of the Windows 2000 Professional Resource Kit. To install Srvany as a service, issue the following command:

instsrv MyService c:\path\srvany.exe

Replace \path\srvany.exe with the path to Srvany.exe on your system. You can also change the service name from MyService to something more descriptive. For details on configuring application-specific settings, check out the Srvany.exe Help topic in the Windows 2000 Professional Resource Kit Tools Help file.”