If you don't mind a little registry editing, you can make almost any Windows executable file into a service very easily. This has the multiple advantages of allowing you to define which account the application will run under, forcing the application to load automatically on startup, allowing you to configure the various recovery options in the service properties tab for the application and just being kind of cool.

To create your own service, you will need the INSTSRV.EXE and SRVANY.EXE programs available from the Windows Server 2003 Toolkit (search Microsoft.com for this file). INSTSRV.EXE allows you to create and remove windows services, while SRVANY.EXE is a 'blank' service starting executable which can be used to run any Windows executable as a service when it is started with INSTSRV.EXE. Download the toolkit and extract it to an easily accessible location like c:\toolkit or the like. Now open a command prompt window by going to 'start\run' and typing 'cmd'.

In the command prompt, navigate to the directory where you placed the resource kit tools. If you need help navigating in the command prompt, see PCSTATS guide here. Once you are in the resource kit directory, type the following: Instsrv (the name you want your service to have) c:\toolkit\srvany.exe

Note that the above command assumes you put the resource kit files into c:\toolkit. You can change the directory if you put it somewhere else. You should see the following message.

If you open the services.msc window now, you'll see that your new service has been created, but we're not quite done yet. Open the registry editor by going to 'start\run' and typing 'regedit.'

In REGEDIT, navigate to HKEY_Local_Machine\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\(your service name)\

Now right click on the registry key called (your service name) and select 'new' then 'key.' Name the new key 'Parameters.'

Now double click the Parameters key and right click on the empty space in the right hand pane. Choose 'new' then 'string value.' Name the new value 'Application'

Now repeat the last two steps again, this time naming the string value 'AppDirectory'.

Now double click on 'Application' and give it the location of the executable file you want to run as a service. For example, if you had a program called 'paintme.exe' located in the c:\paintme\ directory, you would type 'c:\paintme\paintme.exe'