Mike, I just found the usefulness of the webserver watchdog feature! What a great capability. My vacation home is 12 hours away, very inaccessible, and in an area where Pill Billies like to break in and steal anything that isn't bolted down... as well as things that ARE bolted down. As such, having my BI service go down is a HUGE liability.
I run BI as a service. When an update is applied (automatically), Ken's updater downloads the upgrade, stops the service, installs the update, and then restarts the service. One of the most recent updates failed at the 'restart the service" step. Thus, the PC was on and working, but BI was off. I have the PC on an web-based power strip that auto pings the PC's IP. Should it not respond after X attempts, it will power cycle the PC. But if it's just the BI application/service that is off, no problems are reported.
If I could, I'd like to suggest that your watchdog feature have an option to choose between starting the service, or opening the app/console. As it is currently written, 'Blue Iris will be launched'. However, if the user has his BI configured to start as a service, that launching not only starts the service, but also opens the console. The downside to an open console - at least on my system - is that it causes excessive CPU load. I have 24 cameras which on their own get the idle CPU to 70%. Having the console open adds between 15 to 20% more load. Thus, I keep the console open only long enough to make changes. Leaving it open makes the CPU fan sound like a hair drier.
As it is, your BIT provides me with the critical notification that the service is down - that is essential. Getting it to not open the console would simply be icing on the cake.
ETA: I tested the watchdog feature by manually stopping the BI service. I did NOT have the "close BI first" checked. When BIT started the service, I saw the momentary BI notice that the service had started, and then the console opened. I just tried it again, this time having the "close BI first" checked, and while it did start the service, it DID NOT open the console. So I think I just got my icing