I need to run a program as a service , and normally I'd just use srvany as it works and is free , but this particular program doesn't seem to like it.

The service starts and then stops straight away as it has nothing to do.

I've tried a couple of commercial programs to do the same job and they work fine but I'd have to pay for one of them once the 30 day evaluation expires. It's for work , so it won't cost me anything personally but it still bugs me to spend money.

Does anyone know of any free alternatives that work?

We used to use one call FireDemon at work. Not sure if you have to pay for it now, certainly it was free for the context we used it in (educational establishments).

Is srvany using the wrong context for the application?

Any2Service Review and Download,System Maintenance,Windows Utilities Software

Link works I checked

"This utility will enable you to create a windows service out of any type of executable file (exe, com, bat). The services can be created either locally or on a remote computer or server. (requires admin rights - either local admin or network admin)."

any2service - Google Search