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