Create Windows service from executable
windows, windows-services
Solution
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.
Problem
Is there any quick way to, given an executable file, create a Windows service that, when started, launches it?