{"id":10317,"date":"2021-06-21T19:26:25","date_gmt":"2021-06-22T02:26:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.coretechnologies.com\/blog\/?p=10317"},"modified":"2022-04-03T23:01:25","modified_gmt":"2022-04-04T06:01:25","slug":"top-3-srvany-problems","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.coretechnologies.com\/blog\/srvany\/top-3-srvany-problems\/","title":{"rendered":"The Top 3 Real-World Problems with Microsoft Srvany"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"3<\/div>\n

Despite being almost 20 years old, Microsoft’s free Srvany utility<\/a> is still a surprisingly popular tool. Every week, we come across at least one person using the ancient service wrapper<\/a> to install an executable or batch file to start at boot as a Windows Service.<\/p>\n

Truthfully, Srvany is fine for many situations. It’s basic, and it works. And the price is right.<\/p>\n

However, the utility has several shortcomings that aren’t immediately obvious. Here are the top 3 that we (and our customers) have encountered over the years:<\/p>\n

Problem #1: Srvany may continue to run even though your application is dead<\/h2>\n

When it is started, a Srvany service immediately launches its target application. And if the application starts properly and runs without interruption, everything is great.<\/p>\n

But what happens if the application crashes or stops running?<\/p>\n

To find out, we created a new service that runs the Windows Notepad text editor:<\/p>\n

\"Notepad<\/a><\/div>\n

When we started the service, Srvany launched notepad.exe as instructed. Here you can see the service in the “Running” state with Notepad operating in Session 0:<\/p>\n

\"Srvany<\/a><\/div>\n

Next, we forcibly terminated Notepad.exe. As expected, the process disappeared.<\/p>\n

However, even after Notepad had exited, the service remained in the “Running” state. Misleading, to say the least.<\/p>\n

Basically, you cannot rely on the state of a Srvany service to reflect the state of the target application. Just because the service says its running doesn’t mean that the application is!<\/b><\/p>\n

Problem #2: Srvany may leave your application running after the service stops<\/h2>\n

As described in this article<\/a>, when you stop a Srvany service, only the target application is closed. If the target application had launched other applications, those others will not be stopped.<\/p>\n

This can be a problem for batch files and applications involving multiple processes.<\/p>\n

To illustrate, we installed a new Srvany service that runs a batch file. The batch file starts Notepad:<\/p>\n

\"Batch<\/a><\/div>\n

When we started the service, Srvany launched the batch file, which started Notepad. So far so good:<\/p>\n

\"Srvany<\/a><\/div>\n

However, when we stopped the service, only the batch file (cmd.exe) was terminated<\/b>. Notepad continued to run, alive and well — despite the service being in the stopped state.<\/p>\n

Here again, the state of the service does not reflect the state of the target application. But there are unwelcome side effects too.<\/p>\n

If we start the service again, Srvany will launch a fresh copy of Notepad. And then we have two copies of Notepad running<\/b>. This “duplicate” scenario can create chaos for more complex situations, for example with applications that should not run multiple instances. Watch out!<\/p>\n

Problem #3: Srvany isn’t particularly user friendly<\/h2>\n

According to our customers, Srvany comes up short in three areas of usability:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. \n

    There is no GUI<\/b> to install your application as a service. You must use a separate command line tool (Instsrv<\/a>) to create a new Srvany service, which is less than ideal.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n

  2. \n

    To configure the application to run, you have to create keys and values with the Windows Registry Editor<\/a><\/b> — an administrative tool that can cripple your PC if you use it incorrectly.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n

  3. \n

    Srvany is difficult to troubleshoot because it doesn’t write a log file or provide helpful feedback when things go wrong<\/b>. As a result, frustration often ensues.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    \nProceed with caution!<\/p>\n