Windows and Services

[CookingWithGas]

I have a program that I want to run every time Windows (XP Home) starts up, even if no one has logged in. Does such a program have be written to be a service, or is it possible to simply identify a program as a service for this to happen?

[Duckster]

How to Modify the List of Programs that Run When You Start Windows XP

[CookingWithGas]

Originally Posted by Duckster

How to Modify the List of Programs that Run When You Start Windows XP

The first line, and subsequent instructions, refer to "To create or modify the list of programs that start automatically when you log on to your computer, follow these steps: "

I want a program to start when the machine starts, before anyone logs in.

[ultrafilter]

Wiki actually has a pretty decent article on Windows services. The external links should help to get you started.

[ParentalAdvisory]

http://www.gamedev.net/reference/art...rticle1899.asp

Seems to require some knowledge of programming.

[Duckster]

Originally Posted by CookingWithGas

I want a program to start when the machine starts, before anyone logs in.

I sit corrected.

How about:

http://www.nirsoft.net/utils/strun.html
http://www.mlin.net/StartupCPL.shtml

[Number]

As ultrafilter's wiki link points out, you can create a service using Microsoft-published tools by following the steps in this Knowledge Base article.

The article was written for the Windows NT version of the utilities, but you can get newer ones in the Server 2003 Resource Kit Tools. Note that you don't have to install the package; the individual tools can be extracted with any unzipping program.

Not all programs will run correctly as services, and may require a lot of tweaking to get right.

[Khadaji]

You have to create it as a service. There are some good books on it, with some good examples on Amazon.

I have recently had to create several services for a project at work. I used Borland Builder, which provides a very nice class wrapper for it.