‘Run as Service’ utility for XP (Home)

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Does anyone know of a utlity, or another means, that would allow “background” applications, such as ZoneAlarm, to be started as a service in XP?

The objective is to load them just once on startup, rather than every time you logon. Apart resource savings, it would make the logoff/logon process quicker when not using fast user switching. If this is possible, it could only be expected to work for applications that store their settings as common, rather than on a per user basis. And each such application would need to be tested to see whether it behaves when used in this manner.

Given that this would be a nicety, not a necessity, a freeware utility is the preferred solution.

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Software has to be designed to run as a service. You could write a VB service, it’s not too difficult with the NTsrvc.ocx. You can then have that VB service run the requested .exe. The problem is that a service cannot interact with the desktop, so if you program needs ‘input’, then it will hang if no one is logged in.

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Oh well, at least I’m not on a total wild goose chase, Drew. I understand the constraints you brought up, but I hope that with the programs I’m considering, that won’t be an issue. For example, with ZA, the only time I need to interact with it is after installing new apps that need net access. (Since I use the free version, the initial splash screen may cause a problem.) And as far VB goes, you’re probably right, but I haven’t had the time to keep up with VB since V4, except for “mickey mouse” VBA fudges.

I did some Googling before I posted this query, without success (it’s hard to set up a query that brings up anything relevant). However, I kept looking while waiting, and may have had some luck. I found SCV.EXE and SCVSTART.EXE and NTRUNNER.EXE (various download sites, but no home page?). Both look like they may do the job, except they pre-date XP.

I’ll wait a while longer, in case someone has already done this. If not, I’ll have a play with what I found and report back on how it goes.

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Tim,

Part of ZA already runs as a service. The actual Firewall part (TrueVector Internet Monitor) already runs as a service.

It looks like the part that sits in the system tray is actually an interface to the config of the service.

Have a look at the attached screenshot from my XPP box.

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Bryan, that was what originally got me thinking about this. Your post made me read the description for the ZA TrueVector service. It seems the objective (at least for ZA) may be achieved merely by not loading the ZA UI component , except as needed. I’ll have to give that a whirl – Thanks.

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I’ve ran FireDaemon on win2k without a hitch. It allows any program to be run as a service. Simple interface. Good luck!

Dent, Arthur Dent

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Thanks Dean (Arthur?), looks very promising, and claims to work with XP. Now for time to test it out . I’ll report back, but may take a while

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Progress report:

FireDaemon works well. Unfortunately the lite (free) version is limited to a single service. I want to do several, so I’ll continue my hunt for equivalent freeware. If the need escalates from “nice to have” to “must have”, I’ll be back for the FireDaemon Pro (it’s only $45 ).

The ZA user interface can be disabled, leaving just the firewall service running, as Bryan suggested. The only thing missing is the tray icon, and since I rarely use it, it’s easy to start ZA UI manually for the occasional config changes.

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