The Windows NT Resource Kit provides two utilities that allow you to create a Windows NT user-defined service for Windows NT applications and some 16-bit applications (but not for batch files).

Instrsrv.exe installs and removes system services from Windows NT and Srvany.exe allows any Windows NT application to run as a service.

To create a Windows NT user-defined service, perform the following steps:

1. At a MS-DOS command prompt(running CMD.EXE), type the following command:
   
   INSTSRV.EXE My Service SRVANY.EXE
   
   Example: C:\Program Files\Resource Kit\Instsrv.exe Notepad C:\Program Files\Resource Kit\Srvany.exe
   
   NOTE: To verify that the service was created correctly, check the registry to verify that the ImagePath value under HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\service name is set to point to SRVANY.EXE. If this is not set correctly, the service will stop shortly after it starts and return an Event ID 7000 "The service name failed to start."
   
   
2. Run Registry Editor (Regedt32.exe) and locate the following subkey:
   
   HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\<My Service>
   


3. From the Edit menu, click Add Key. Type the following and click OK:
   
   Key Name: Parameters
   Class : <leave blank>
   


4. Select the Parameters key.
   


5. From the Edit menu, click Add Value. Type the following and click OK:
   
   Value Name: Application
   Data Type : REG_SZ
   String : <path>\<application.ext>
   
   where <path>\<application.ext> is the drive and full path to the application executable including the extension (i.e., C:\WinNT\Notepad.exe)
   


6. Close Registry Editor.

     By default, a newly created service it configured to run Automatically when the system is restarted. To change this setting to Manual, run the Services applet from Control Panel and change the Startup value to Manual. A service set to Manual can be started in one of several ways:

- From the Services applet in Control Panel
- NET START <My Service>
- Sc.exe start <My Service>

     For more information on installing and removing a user-defined service, please see the Srvany.wri document provided with the Windows NT Resource Kit utilities (i.e., C:\Reskit\Srvany.wri). This document can also be found on the Windows NT Resource Kit CD in the Common\Config directory.