The official guide on setting up PHP as FastCGI on Windows http://wiki.nginx.org/PHPFastCGIOnWindows makes use of batch files.
A fairly simple guide on setting up PHP as a service on Windows, with full start/stop/restart/status support.
You can open the Services (win+run>services.msc) and start PHP, or type
net start PHP.
php-cgi-service startphp-cgi-service stopphp-cgi-service statusphp-cgi-service restart
The first thing that's needed is the WinSW binary from https://github.com/kohsuke/winsw/releases The "winsw-{VERSION}-bin.exe" needs to be saved to the folder containing php-cgi.exe, and needs to be renamed "php-cgi-service.exe"
Copy xml file php-cgi-service.xml into the same folder where php-cgi.exe and php-cgi-service.exe are.
Create logs folder where you want to log the service output.
Fit C:\PATH\TO and PORT... as needed.
<service>
<id>PHP</id>
<name>PHP</name>
<description>PHP</description>
<executable>C:\PATH\TO\php\php-cgi.exe</executable>
<stopexecutable>C:\Windows\system32\taskkill.exe</stopexecutable>
<stopargument>/f</stopargument>
<stopargument>/IM</stopargument>
<stopargument>php-cgi.exe</stopargument>
<env name="PHPRC" value="C:\PATH\TO\FOLDER\CONTAINING\PHPINI" />
<logpath>C:\PATH\FOR\WINSW\LOGFILES</logpath>
<logmode>roll</logmode>
<startargument>-bPORT</startargument>
<startargument>-cc:\PATH\TO\php.ini</startargument>
</service>
Once this has all been accomplished, open the command prompt, switch to the folder containing php-cgi.exe, and execute the following command:
php-cgi-service install
tested with winsw version 2.1.2
If you're having issues starting the service, verify if it starts on its own by opening the command prompt to the folder containing php-cgi.exe and running:
php-cgi -b(PORT) -cc:\PATH\TO\php.ini
Also, make sure the log folders referenced in the xml file exist.