Run exe as a service

nutcase · 3 Oct 2015 at 18:47

Hi All,

I'm trying to get a VPN program started when a computer starts. It's running server 2012 r2. I initially tried sc create but unsurprisingly that failed. So I tried these instructions at the end from Hairy Drumroll:

https://social.technet.microsoft.co...es-using-cmd-script-or-replacement-for-srvany

The service now starts, but nothing actually runs

Does anyone have any ideas please?

Thanks

Steveocee · 3 Oct 2015 at 21:57

Not quite running something as a service as it requires you to login at each reboot but as a "quick" work around you could write a .bat and throw it into the startup folder.

nutcase · 4 Oct 2015 at 04:57

Not an option unfortunately, the VPN needs to be running before logon.

lurkio · 4 Oct 2015 at 09:58

Does the exe in question generate a gui window ?

I run a bunch of exe's on my 2008 server as services

I can give you a service wrapper and instructions if you want

Quartz · 4 Oct 2015 at 11:57

Doesn't Task Scheduler do this?

nutcase · 4 Oct 2015 at 15:39

lurkio said:
Does the exe in question generate a gui window ?

I run a bunch of exe's on my 2008 server as services

I can give you a service wrapper and instructions if you want

It does, but it can be started from the command line I think.

Yes please on the instructions - I think that's what I've tried but without success

Task scheduler needs to be logged on unfortunately.

lurkio · 4 Oct 2015 at 15:50

give this a go

www.havoc-company.com/exe_as_service.zip

has a readme , it is what I use to run arma3 dedicated server as service

nutcase · 4 Oct 2015 at 20:47

Thank you

I'll have a look at work tomorrow

nutcase · 6 Oct 2015 at 13:44

Hmm, no go at the moment - the service starts ok, but nothing actually appears to happen

Will keep tinkering...

lurkio · 6 Oct 2015 at 14:02

generally because you are running something as a service ..... you will see nothing being output

are you getting any interactive service detection messages (http://blogs.msdn.com/b/patricka/ar...eshooting-interactive-services-detection.aspx)

is the exe that you are running as a service in the task list ?

nutcase · 8 Oct 2015 at 08:07

Stupidity strikes again - it wasn't the service I created - it was a pre-existing service for the vpn so not sure why it won't start up. Had no sleep for two nights so going to back off and try again later...