>>>I need to make a program that runs in the background, which means that the executable runs but is completely transparent to the user.
>>>
>>>About the process, what I am looking for is an ftp connection to upload / download files without the user having the Visual Fox screen before them or by mistake closing the application.
>>>
>>>Any suggestion?
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>>Usually these service applications need to be very reliable. To make a really reliable Windows service application it would be better (or at least easier) to do in NET. I have tried to emulate that in VFP before, but it was tedious and never as simple and sturdy as one written in NET. That service should write to the Windows events and log any errors. I also log start/stop events. If it's important enough it should also send emails about its status.
>>I have implemented an ftp download in C# using some third party library which worked very good, but I don't have it at hand. If you want to go that route I can look it up later for you.
>
>We have several VFP applications running as a service. Nothing difficult if you use the good old srvany approach. You could also let it run under always up, a commercial product which offers additional benefits like schedule restarts, error detection and automatic restarts, event logging and email etc.
>
>We got those services deployed at many clients and they are very reliable as far as my experience goes. You will have to make sure your error handling is robust though.
>
>Walter,

That is true, I have used svrany in the past as well. But now I prefer it to be out of the box, since the NET service comes with the service installer and proper events for start & stop. Iirc we had to edit the registry for the srvany approach.
So both are possible to implement for sure, while VFP will require a little bit more work and a high level of experience to make the VFP app highly available. Some admins would view the srvany.exe as a crutch though.