Run a program as a service in Windows

This tutorial is based on Windows 8.1 + NSSM 2.21.1 but should work with other versions as well.

Setup

1. Download NSSM (the Non-Sucking Service Manager)
2. Open the archive and extract the win32 or win64 directory (depending on your Windows installation’s architecture, you can check this by pressing Windows Key + Pause) Note: As there is no installer, you should extract the file to a safe location, for example C:\Program Files\NSSM
3. Open a command window with administrator privileges
   1. Open start
   2. Type cmd
   3. Right-click on cmd and choose Run as administrator
4. Navigate to your NSSM directory, for example:

   cd "C:\Program Files\NSSM"
   

5. Type nssm install and press enter
6. Select the program to run as a service by clicking ... after Path
7. Give the service a name (Service name)
8. Click Install service

You’re done. You’ve installed a normal program as a service. It’s possible to define more settings, but these are the minimal settings required.

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Managing services

1. Open start
2. Type services.msc and press enter
3. Search for your service
4. Right-click your service to manage it (start, stop, restart etc)