1. Hmm, sounds like an under qualified sales person. Anyways, the product you need is called "Server for ActiveX" (http://www.dart.com/ptsrv.aspx). Straight from the website..."NT Service ActiveX control allows you to create and install your application as a service". It's been several years since I have used, but it appears they still have fully functional free trial. If I recall correctly, a nag message would appear when you called each of the methods.

2. Correct, FireDaemon will not handle a clean shutdown. But it is a relatively inexpensive and quick solution (like SRVANY).