When starting Apache as a service you may encounter an error message from the Windows Service Control Manager. For example, if you try to start Apache by using the Services applet in the Windows Control Panel, you may get the following message:

Could not start the Apache2 service on \\COMPUTER
Error 1067; The process terminated unexpectedly.

You will get this generic error if there is any problem with starting the Apache service. In order to see what is really causing the problem you should follow the instructions for Running Apache for Windows from the Command Prompt.

There is some support for Apache on Windows 9x to behave in a similar manner as a service on Windows NT. It is highly experimental. It is not of production-class reliability, and its future is not guaranteed. It can be mostly regarded as a risky thing to play with - proceed with caution!

There are some differences between the two kinds of services you should be aware of:

Apache will attempt to start and if successful it will run in the background. If you run the command

apache -n "MyServiceName" -k start

via a shortcut on your desktop, for example, then if the service starts successfully, a console window will flash up but it immediately disappears. If Apache detects any errors on startup such as incorrect entries in the httpd.conf configuration file, the console window will remain visible. This will display an error message which will be useful in tracking down the cause of the problem.

Windows 9x does not support NET START or NET STOP commands. You must control the Apache service on the command prompt via the -k switches.

Apache and Windows 9x offer no support for running Apache as a specific user with network privileges. In fact, Windows 9x offers no security on the local machine, either. This is the simple reason because of which the Apache Software Foundation never endorses use of a Windows 9x -based system as a public Apache server. The primitive support for Windows 9x exists only to assist the user in developing web content and learning the Apache server, and perhaps as an intranet server on a secured, private network.

Once you have confirmed that Apache runs correctly as a console application you can install, control and uninstall the pseudo-service with the same commands as on Windows NT. You can also use the Apache Service Monitor to manage Windows 9x pseudo-services.