srvany-ng: Run any Windows application as a Service

A drop in, compatible, replacement for the useful "srvany.exe", found in the Windows Server Resource Kit.
Written in C, for Windows XP and newer.

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Differences to the original

• Open Source
• 32 and 64 bit binary available
• Unicode (default) and Multibyte Character Set (MBCS) binaries available
• No OS/2 application support
• Service will stop if the launched application exits
• Added optional configuration to automatically restart the target application on exit

Building

Solution is known to build with Visual Studio 2022, no additional dependencies are needed. The project uses the "v141_xp" toolset to ensure XP / 2003 support, and links to the MSVCRT statically.

Installing

Place srvany-ng in an accessible folder on your system. Install it as a service from an Elevated (Administrator) Command Prompt:

sc create "MyServiceName" start= auto binPath= "C:\Path\To\srvany-ng.exe"
sc description MyServiceName "My services description"

Note the spaces between start=, binPath= and their parameters. This is intended.

Now, open the Registry editor (regedit.exe), and browse to: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\MyServiceName

Create a new Key named "Parameters".
In the parameters key, create a new String value named "Application". The value should be the file path to the application you wish to run as a service.

Optional Parameters

Value name	Value type	Description
AppDirectory	String value	The starting directory for your application. Usually the same as the folder its executable is in.
AppParameters	String value	Command line arguments to pass to your application on startup.
AppEnvironment	Multi-String value	Environment variables to set for your application.
RestartOnExit	DWORD value	If set to 1, and the application exits, srvany-ng will automatically restart it.

Further Reading

Microsoft support article describing the use of the original srvany.exe: https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/kb/137890