HFS HTTP is a very simple webserver. As such it is commonly used as basic a file server that is accessible over the Internet where people can both upload and download files from it. It uses the HTTP protocol, the same as a website. Therefore, the users do not need to have a dedicated FTP client program installed on their machines to get and put files into a computer that runs HFS. In fact, HFS does not even support the FTP methos at the moment.
As a server program, it is advantageous to run HFS as a service in Windows. Any programs that run as a service is functional without having a user account being logged in. Therefore, you can log out of the Windows machine and still have HFS serving out and accept incoming files.
On a side note, if you want to have better security with the files transfered out of and into HFS, you should enable SSL with the transfer. With SSL, the data is encrypted between HFS and the computer accessing it. Therefore, you can feel secured that no one can snoop on the files being transfered.
