what is the win32 alternative to the Unix daemon() subroutine?

Question

I have to call several (> 10) .exe command line programs in the background. Creating a Windows Services doesn't sound very appealling in this context - c'mon, that's a bit overpowered for such a simple task.

Is there anything like a daemon(3) subroutine for Windows?

Answer 1

You might look into using the srvany.exe service wrapper found in the Windows Server 2003 Resource Kit Tools. I have used this method quite successfully under Windows XP, but I cannot comment on how it may work for newer versions of the OS.

There seems to be plenty of information available¹ on how to use this tool.

_{1 - Google search for srvany+howto}