I had the same issue as in this thread.  I was going to comment there but the forum said to start a new thread rather than reviving that one.

 

The issue seems to be that when the Windows service is created the path is set as;

d:\winids\snort\bin\snort /SERVICE

But it should be;

d:\winids\snort\bin\snort.exe /SERVICE

In the registry go to HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\SnortSvc then edit the ImagePath entry to change the path

There is something odd about your Windows environment requiring the extensions?

I do not believe so.  If you look at every Windows service the path includes the extension.

Been doing these tutorials and have installed 1000+ IDS's in the last 15 years and not once have I had to add an extension.

It sounds like you have a corrupted .EXE association.This issue can occur if a virus or other 3rd party application has changed or corrupted some default registry settings.

These types of quirks seem to pop up when the installer fails to install the Windows Intrusion Detection System on a fresh install of Windows.

Okay thanks.  This was a fresh install of 2012 R2.  Everything else worked.  Great walk through!!!