Question

I have a file system monitoring PowerShell script using System.IO.FileSystemWatcher events.
The script works great, but it requires an open PowerShell window.

Thus, I need to run it as a Windows Service at Windows startup (without logon). Is there a way to do this?

Answer 1

To execute your script at windows startup (without logon) you could create a windows service for it (using srvany.exe).
Steps:

1. Get the windows 2003 resource kit (which contains srvany.exe)
2. Install the resource kit

3. Create the service using sc and srvany.exe

   sc create PSService binPath= "C:\Program Files\Windows Resource Kits\Tools\srvany.exe" DisplayName= "PSService"
   

4. Parametrize your service

   Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00
   [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\services\PSService]
   "Type"=dword:00000010
   "Start"=dword:00000003
   "ErrorControl"=dword:00000001
   "DisplayName"="PSService"
   "ObjectName"="LocalSystem"
   [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\services\PSService\Parameters]
   "Application"="C:\\Windows\\System32\\WindowsPowerShell\\v1.0\\powershell.exe -noExit -ExecutionPolicy RemoteSigned -File C:\\PSService\\psservice.ps1"
   

Some remarks:

• Srvany.exe is not available for Windows Vista and up. It might work, but it’s probably not supported
• You might want to run it with other credentials (for security reasons)
• You might want to save your script in a directory where only administrators have write access (for security reasons)