{"id":98,"date":"2007-02-02T11:30:43","date_gmt":"2007-02-02T11:30:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/driverentry.com.br\/en\/2007\/02\/02\/prog2svc-a-jobless-service\/"},"modified":"2026-07-25T13:12:56","modified_gmt":"2026-07-25T13:12:56","slug":"prog2svc-a-jobless-service","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/driverentry.com.br\/en\/2007\/02\/02\/prog2svc-a-jobless-service\/","title":{"rendered":"Prog2Svc \u2013 A jobless service"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Nowadays, although contradictory it may seem, creating a service does not require much work.\u00a0A few clicks on a Visual Studio 2005\u00a0Wizard and just it, we will have an application capable of providing ATL<\/a> COM<\/a> interfaces and which is indeed a Windows service.\u00a0In this post, I will talk about a little tool that I’m offering as a toast to those who have the patience to read this Blog.<\/p>\n

At the first company I worked for as a programmer, about 11 years ago, I was responsible for maintaining\u00a0Provectus’s<\/a> software’s data collector communication network.\u00a0At first, an MFC<\/a> program was responsible for interacting with the driver that controls the SS140 board, which was the interface that the PC had to be part of this data collector\u00a0network.\u00a0Once the program had stabilized, we modified the software to make it a Windows service.<\/p>\n

But what is a Service?<\/h3>\n

A service is an executable module, which is registered to be executed on the system even if nobody logs on to Windows.\u00a0Today, many applications and Windows components are implemented as services.\u00a0A service is not only a common executable registered to get started automatically.\u00a0A service must provide an interface CallBack routines for the system, in order to respond to commands that start, stop and stay of execution.\u00a0This interface is not a COM<\/strong> interface as some of you might have guessed.\u00a0Take a look at the\u00a0StartServiceCtrlDispatcher<\/a> function\u00a0to get an idea of the interface\u00a0type I am referring to.\u00a0This is just one of the necessary\u00a0functions to build a service.\u00a0Take a walk by reference for details on how to implement a service from the scratch.\u00a0Services typically run on system account, but it may optionally use a given user account.\u00a0More details about services, on the MSDN<\/a> site.<\/p>\n

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Back to the ’90s, then we needed to make the Supervisor<\/em>, one of our major programs at Provectus work as a service.\u00a0Supervisor<\/em> was a giant\u00a0program built in Visual Basic 4.0.\u00a0It was responsible for receiving commands from collector network, and regarding to them, execute Stored Procedures<\/a> in SQL Server.\u00a0Visual Basic 4.0 didn’t implement the AddressOf<\/em><\/strong> operator, which appeared only in version 5.0.\u00a0This operator can be used to obtain the pointer to functions written in VB.\u00a0This allowed such programs registering\u00a0CallBack<\/em> routines in the system. Anyway, with this operator, a few pounds of patience and a gun over your head, you could build a service in Visual Basic.\u00a0We thought about the possibility of rewriting the entire Supervisor<\/em> in C, so we could then turn it into a service.\u00a0But luckily someone had an outbreak of sanity and said:<\/p>\n

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“Why do not you write an empty service that simply calls the Supervisor?”<\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Yeah, this really works perfectly!\u00a0This need of having a program behaving as a service is more common than you think, especially when we are talking about business environments.\u00a0It didn’t take long to some tools that made this possible appear, but nothing prevents me from having my own version.<\/p>\n

Prog2Svc program is a service that does right that.\u00a0Running this program without any parameters, you will receive the message below, which tells what the possible parameters are to be used.<\/p>\n

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Thus, to register the Windows calculator as a service, we use the following command line. Remember that this is an operation that requires administrative rights, so in the case of Windows Vista, this command should be run from a Command Prompt<\/em> that was started as an administrator.<\/p>\n

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Prog2Svc -add Calculadora c:\\Windows\\System32\\calc.exe<\/pre>\n<\/div>\n
After the message of success has been shown, you can already see your new service through the Windows\u00a0Service Manager.\u00a0To access the service manager, type “services.msc” without the quotes in the Run…<\/em> window.<\/p>\n
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You can start your service either using service manager or using the good old command “net start calculadora” in the Run…<\/em> window.<\/p>\n
When we start the service, we have no sign that it is really working.\u00a0That’s because calc.exe was executed on another Desktop<\/em>, but we can confirm its execution using Process Explorer<\/a>.<\/p>\n
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The additional -interactive <\/strong>parameter can make your new service interaction with the Desktop<\/em>.\u00a0Note: Windows Vista deserves special attention here<\/em>.\u00a0The -auto <\/strong>parameter sets the service\u00a0automatic to start when the system is turned on.\u00a0Finally, the –silent <\/strong>parameter makes the installation being silently\u00a0done. That is, no success or error message will be displayed. Note: In this case, the success or failure can be verified by the Prog2Svc\u00a0exit code.<\/em> Another possibility is the use of environment variables in application\u00a0path<\/em> that will run.\u00a0See this example\u00a0more completely.<\/p>\n
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Prog2Svc -add -silent -auto BlocoDeNotas %SystemRoot%\\System32\\notepad.exe<\/pre>\n<\/div>\n
Removing the service is very simple.\u00a0See example below.\u00a0Note that to remove services, we can also count on the silent mode.<\/p>\n
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Prog2Svc -remove Calculadora<\/pre>\n
Prog2Svc -remove -silent BlocoDeNotas<\/pre>\n<\/div>\n
How does pseudo-service finishes?<\/h3>\n
When we ask to stop the service, Prog2Svc\u00a0program receives a notification via CallBack<\/em> routine.\u00a0In that time, we could do a flying kick in the process’s\u00a0chest, but this wouldn’t be good manners. A routine identifies the process created\u00a0main window and sends a WM_CLOSE message to this window.\u00a0After that, 30 seconds are expected for the process to have the opportunity to finish their tasks and deallocate system resources.\u00a0If this time expires and the process is still running, well, it’s like my friend Thiago<\/a> always says: “Only violence builds” <\/em>and the process will be dropped out via TerminateProcess()<\/a>.<\/p>\n
If you cannot still\u00a0imagine how this tool might be useful, think you could create a service that runs the Command Prompt<\/em>, and thus, you will have a shell running on system account.\u00a0This would help you to test and find out what you could do with this account privilege.<\/p>\n
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Prog2Svc -add -interactive SysCmd %SystemRoot%\\System32\\cmd.exe<\/pre>\n<\/div>\n
To install this program, just put a copy of this executable at the System32<\/em> directory.\u00a0Technically, you could put it into any directory, but remember that the folder where it will be should be accessible by a system account.\u00a0So, do not put it into directories like “My Documents”<\/em> or any other personal folder.<\/p>\n
As we know that the Internet is not the safest place to get an executable, make sure the program you are downloading has a valid signature.<\/p>\n
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Have fun!<\/p>\n