Sometimes, you want an application to always run. Even if you are not logged on. You want the app to start automatically with Windows.
You know that Windows Services are kind of software that do that.
But, what if you want a non-service app to run automatically, like a service, even notepad.exe?
You may have found softwares like AlwaysUp, FireDaemon, or srvany (from Windows Resource Kit) that can help you achieve that goal.
But, did you know that you can do that, directly inside windows, without any third party software?
The solution is to simply use the windows integrated Task Scheduler.
- You can use it, to launch any app.
- You can make it run on any username.
- You can set it to run even if you are not logged.
- And, the best of all, you can set it launch trigger to “Windows Startup”!
That’s all you need, to launch any app with windows start, like a windows service.
Ok, it’s not a real windows service, you can’t see it in the services area, but you will see them running in the Task Scheduler console, where you can stop it, restart it, etc.
There are some open source alternatives as well. NSSM, for instance, does it very smoothly. It also monitors the service so when it fails it restarts it automatically. Here’s a detailed guide on it: https://www.helpmegeek.com/run-applications-as-windows-service/
Ok that doesn’t look like a spam enough to trash it, but why are you talking about NSSM all over the web? You can simply say, “I created a tool called NSSM that can do it!” 🙂 Have a nice day.