Use this code in your C++ executable to start MS SQL Server dynamically on aWindows NT machine. Link to w95scm.lib, which is provided with the SQL 7.0 CD.

 #include "wn95scm.h" //included with Sql7.0 CDBOOL  StartSqlServer(LPSTR szErrorMsg){     LPSTR       szService = "MSSQLServer";     DWORD       dwServiceState, dwErr;     BOOL        bControlSuccessful;     bControlSuccessful = TRUE;    // Query service state.     dwServiceState = SQLSCMGetLocalServiceState(szService, &dwErr);     while ((dwServiceState != 0) && (bControlSuccessful == TRUE))     {          if (dwServiceState == SERVICE_RUNNING)               break;          switch (dwServiceState)          {               case SERVICE_PAUSED:     // Paused, so continue.                    bControlSuccessful =  SQLSCMLocalServiceControl(szService,SQLSCMCmd_CONTINUE,&dwErr, 0, NULL);                    break;               case SERVICE_STOPPED:     // Stopped, start service.                    bControlSuccessful =  SQLSCMLocalServiceControl(szService,SQLSCMCmd_START, &dwErr, 0, NULL);                    break;               default:// Error if state is 0 otherwise state is changing.                    if (dwServiceState == 0)                    {    // Error. Return failure.                         sprintf(szErrorMsg, "Error %lu on attempt to determineservice state.", dwErr);                         return (FALSE);                    }          }          Sleep(5);          dwServiceState = SQLSCMGetLocalServiceState(szService, &dwErr);     }     if (bControlSuccessful)     {          sprintf(szErrorMsg, "Error %lu returned on attempt to change servicestate.", dwErr);     }     return (bControlSuccessful ? TRUE : FALSE);}