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Is there any quick way to, given an executable file, create a Windows service that, when started, launches it?

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  • 10
    Here is Microsoft's instructions about how to achieve this. Commented Aug 27, 2010 at 7:27

13 Answers 13

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To create a Windows Service from an executable, you can use sc.exe:

sc.exe create <new_service_name> binPath= "<path_to_the_service_executable>"

You must have quotation marks around the actual exe path, and a space after the binPath=.

More information on the sc command can be found in Microsoft KB251192.

Note that it will not work for just any executable: the executable must be a Windows Service (i.e. implement ServiceMain). When registering a non-service executable as a service, you'll get the following error upon trying to start the service:

Error 1053: The service did not respond to the start or control request in a timely fashion.

There are tools that can create a Windows Service from arbitrary, non-service executables, see the other answers for examples of such tools.

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8 Comments

you'll (almost certainly) have to run the command prompt as Administrator in order for this command to work
The path also needs to be the fully qualified path - I could not get my service to start by using a relative path.
the space after binpath= along with having to surround the executable path with double quotes is totally wrong, at least for windows 10. the quoting is required if and only if the path contains special characters like whitespace. also, casing (lowe/upper/mixed-case) doesn't matter anywhere, in variable names too, and displayname="my service" is another goodie to pass on the commandline while creating a service to view as the first row (Name) at services.msc.
The space after binPath= was required for me on Windows 7 but not on Windows 10
As this answer concedes, this only works for exe designed to be Windows services.
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363

Use NSSM( the non-Sucking Service Manager ) to run a .BAT or any .EXE file as a service.

https://nssm.cc/

  • Step 1: Download NSSM
  • Step 2: Install your sevice with nssm.exe install [serviceName]
  • Step 3: This will open a GUI which you will use to locate your executable
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14 Comments

Best service manager ever. I even managed to get PlexWatch to install as a service using NSSM.
does this set is a service forever? everytime windows starts the service will start? also how can I do this without user interaction? a script or code of some sort?
This is absolutely great, I wish I could accept this answer instead of the first one, :-(
I can run Dropbox as a service on the server. Absolutely a non-sucking tool!
Do the exe file must be a windows service project, to be able to work with nssm or it can be a normal exe file ?, because when i use the nssm start [servicename] it showing error like, windows service can't run from command prompt etc.
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Extending (Kevin Tong) answer.

Step 1: Download & Unzip nssm-2.24.zip

Step 2: From command line type:

C:\> nssm.exe install [servicename]

it will open GUI as below (the example is UT2003 server), then simply browse it to: yourapplication.exe

enter image description here

More information on: https://nssm.cc/usage

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9 Comments

Correct Syntax nssm.exe install [serviceName]. This solution works but if you have a GUI Application, it will not work on Win Serever2003. If you later want to remove it, use nssm.exe remove [youservicename]
I'm assuming the reference to nginx is because that's the particular program you want to run as a service? Until I saw hmd's comment above I thought you were trying to help by implying that nginx was a required dependency to install or something... but then in the GUI it looks like you aren't installing nginx, you're installing an Unreal Tournament server? Just pointing out that the example is inconsistent and potentially misleading. A simple "Suppose you wanted to install nginx as a service, then it would look like this:" would help.
@flutefreak7 yes nginx is not necessary and misleading. The command will work without it as well. It is optional parameter if you want to supply service name from command prompt.
When I try to use nssm my Windows Forms up is running but form is not shown...Why?
Its running your application as Windows service, most they are for backend. It could be also that its running as another root / admin username. you have to check it. Also more informations you can check here: nssm.cc/usage
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these extras proved useful.. need to be executed as an Administrator

sc create  <service_name> binpath= "<binary_path>"
sc stop    <service_name>
sc queryex <service_name>
sc delete  <service_name>

If your service name has any spaces, enclose in "quotes".

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1 Comment

Note: this works in CMD, but not in powershell
23

Many existing answers include human intervention at install time. This can be an error-prone process. If you have many executables wanted to be installed as services, the last thing you want to do is to do them manually at install time.

Towards the above described scenario, I created serman, a command line tool to install an executable as a service. All you need to write (and only write once) is a simple service configuration file along with your executable. Run 

serman install <path_to_config_file>

will install the service. stdout and stderr are all logged. For more info, take a look at the project website.

A working configuration file is very simple, as demonstrated below. But it also has many useful features such as <env> and <persistent_env> below.

<service>
  <id>hello</id>
  <name>hello</name>
  <description>This service runs the hello application</description>

  <executable>node.exe</executable>

  <!-- 
       {{dir}} will be expanded to the containing directory of your 
       config file, which is normally where your executable locates 
   -->
  <arguments>"{{dir}}\hello.js"</arguments>

  <logmode>rotate</logmode>

  <!-- OPTIONAL FEATURE:
       NODE_ENV=production will be an environment variable 
       available to your application, but not visible outside 
       of your application
   -->
  <env name="NODE_ENV" value="production"/>

  <!-- OPTIONAL FEATURE:
       FOO_SERVICE_PORT=8989 will be persisted as an environment
       variable to the system.
   -->
  <persistent_env name="FOO_SERVICE_PORT" value="8989" />
</service>
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I tried many, but, this one worked for me without any problems!!!
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Same as Sergii Pozharov's answer, but with a PowerShell cmdlet:

New-Service -Name "MyService" -BinaryPathName "C:\Path\to\myservice.exe"

See New-Service for more customization.

This will only work for executables that already implement the Windows Services API.

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3 Comments

This should be the accepted answer, since it is not limited to the type of executable
I agree, to me this is the best answer... it also is a programmatic answer. However, to completely answer the OP's question I believe it also needs a line to cover the "and start it" requirement. Start-Service -Name "MyService"
@Bruno what do you mean "it is not limited"?? The answer states "This will only work for executables that already implement the Windows Services API". That is the whole reason NSSM and other solutions on this thread exist. Until Microsoft fixes it, Windows services cannot be ordinary executables.
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Some of the top answers point to NSSM. This project has not been updated since 2017.

More modern alternative of similar functionality is https://github.com/winsw/winsw/ - contains multiple examples and good docs.

Tip for convenient use, that helped me to set it up faster than NSSM: if you name the winsw executable as myapp.exe and create XML configuration file myapp.xml, you just run myapp.exe install and myapp.exe start and voila, the service is running.

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One of the core arguments for using NSSM is that it enables the use of batch files as the base for services. Can WinSW work with BAT files? I could not find a clear answer in its documentation...
4

I've tested a good product for that: AlwaysUp. Not free but they have a 30 days trial period so you can give it a try...

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4

I created the cross-platform Service Manager software a few years back so that I could start PHP and other scripting languages as system services on Windows, Mac, and Linux OSes:

https://github.com/cubiclesoft/service-manager

Service Manager is a set of precompiled binaries that install and manage a system service on the target OS using nearly identical command-line options (source code also available). Each platform does have subtle differences but the core features are mostly normalized.

If the child process dies, Service Manager automatically restarts it.

Processes that are started with Service Manager should periodically watch for two notification files to handle restart and reload requests but they don't necessarily have to do that. Service Manager will force restart the child process if it doesn't respond in a timely fashion to controlled restart/reload requests.

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1

You can check out my small free utility for service create\edit\delete operations. Here is create example:

Go to Service -> Modify -> Create

enter image description here

Executable file (google drive): [Download]

Source code: [Download]

Blog post: [BlogLink]

Service editor class: WinServiceUtils.cs

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1

Probably all your answers are better, but - just to be complete on the choice of options - I wanted to remind about old, similar method used for years:

SrvAny (installed by InstSrv)

as described here: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/troubleshoot/windows-client/deployment/create-user-defined-service

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2 Comments

Note that the link to download Resource Kit has been taken down by Microsoft. People have to search for other unofficial downloads or find snapshot in archive.org. Besides, it is expecting0 32bit executable (some 16bit are fine too), the status for 64bit binary is unknown, so people will need to do their own testing.
I haven't tried this but there is a recreation here: github.com/birkett/srvany-ng
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I have to add that using PowerShell the behavior is different than when using CMD.

For example, in Powershell you must use sc .exe delete ServiceName. In CMD it doesn't make difference somehow.

With Powershell With Powershell

  • The "sc.exe queryex" is to demonstrate that the service still there.

With windows CMD With windows CMD

With sc.exe in Powershell With sc.exe in Powershell

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-1

I have another method, using the open-source library called Topshelf. I used it in a c# project, but maybe its available in different programming languages.

Here's a video that explains how to use it a little. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y64L-3HKuP0

The crux of this issue for a lot of people is that you can't install any old .exe as a service unless you use the old method that Tomeg used. I couldn't find the windows nt toolkit that's needed to get that to work.

I was stuck in a corner and this was my way out.

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