Contents 

Application as Service User Manual

Overview

Application as Service is an advanced system utility which lets you not only to run any application program executable as Windows service but to create and manage system services locally or on any remote computer as well, benefiting from all of the advantages native Windows services provide. You are able to create a service in seconds without modifying any of your existing applications and keep it running without the need of an end user session. Eltima Application as Service ensures that your application launched as service will:

• run locally or on remote PC over network or Internet
• run at the specific time or date (backup utility, scheduler, etc.)
• restart on power failures or application crashes (client-server utilities, databases, etc.) automatically
• run at the predefined order (follows the service it depends upon)
• start prior to user logon (keyloggers, surveillance utilities, etc.)
• be executed with specified user rights and priority

Unlike standard services which, per se, are non-interactive and run in background, programs started by our utility could respond to user-generated events (mouse clicks/keyboard button pressing, etc). Application as Service offers additional options such as advanced recovery (restart the service your application is started by; restart computer; launch additional applications), sophisticated dependencies mechanism, grant your application certain rights/priority and bind to specific processors, "consistent-application-crash" protection, forceful application exit, graceful console and Windows applications exit, on-the-fly start-up customization and lots more.

Application as Service is naturally a command line driven application. The graphical user interface it provides is a front-end to console application which helps you grasp the overwhelming number of options and simplifies the whole process of installing and launching your application as service.

However, if you find it more useful and convenient for your tasks to use command line, Application as Service will help you generate command line options to automate the process in future. Additionally, our application allows you to install and start services using XML configuration file which guarantees easy integration and extensibility of Application as Service great features into your own application (OEM license only).

Finally, this software provides all possible functionality needed to run application as services you may think of, simplifying system administration chores and software development.

Main features:

• Run any application (32/64-bit and console ones) as Windows service
• Create and manage system services in few clicks
• Easily connect to remote PC over local network or Internet and manage all remote services like your own
• Run application before users login into their accounts
• Run your application interactively or silently
• Schedule your service to run at the exact time and periodically on the defined day of the week/month/year
• Minimize downtime by auto-restarting application once it is crashed
• Advanced service dependencies mechanism allows you to run applications at the certain order
• Define Load Order Group which your application belongs to
• Restrict/grant your application with execution rights by specifying user account name under which it is run
• On-the-fly service start-up type customization
• Gracefully close console and Windows applications
• Close various popup windows that your application might display
• Specify the process priority for your application (Real time/High/Above normal/Normal/Below normal/Low)
• Define CPU binding for multi-processor PCs
• Conveniently supply additional options and system environment variables for console and Windows applications
• Run additional programs prior to the service startup, program start, stop or just after the service shutdown
• Redirect STDIN, STDOUT and STDERROR streams to or from the file for console application
• Take all benefits of multi-processor, multi-thread and 64-bit platforms
• Works under Virtual Machines (VMWare and so on)
• Use XML configuration file to install the service

Platforms "Application as Service" is compatible with:

• Windows NT4
• Windows 2000
• Windows XP
• Windows 2003
• Windows Vista
• Windows Server 2008
• All 64-bit platforms