When will the Client be able to start as an Windows Service. The WU need a long time for completion. So a Service will be helpfull, because most of the Systems are Servers. I dont want to run such a System with an locked user account. There is an solution to compile the Client by myself. But the handling of such a Client is not very comfortable.

So far as I can tell, the Windows Service client is already compiled. Following the information in the BOINC web pages at http://boinc.berkeley.edu/service.php run boinc_gui -install (probably best if you include the full path to boinc_gui in the command line!)

On Windows XP, I found I had to grant "Network Service" permissions (I chose Full Control) of the BOINC folder and all subfolders before it worked properly. This runs against the web page - maybe it's a BOINC 4 change.


This seems (to me anyway) a better way of running things - though I'm unclear what dependency issues this gives me with the GUI application, and what happens with the GUI application with users logged off (presumably it can't run).



David (who is completely new to BOINC and may be talking rubbish)

> So far as I can tell, the Windows Service client is already compiled.
> Following the information in the BOINC web pages at
> http://boinc.berkeley.edu/service.php run boinc_gui -install (probably best
> if you include the full path to boinc_gui in the command line!)
>
> On Windows XP, I found I had to grant "Network Service" permissions (I chose
> Full Control) of the BOINC folder and all subfolders before it worked
> properly. This runs against the web page - maybe it's a BOINC 4 change.
>
>
> This seems (to me anyway) a better way of running things - though I'm unclear
> what dependency issues this gives me with the GUI application, and what
> happens with the GUI application with users logged off (presumably it can't
> run).
>
>
>
> David (who is completely new to BOINC and may be talking rubbish)
>
>
This is a good answer, I do have a couple of additions though.

The CLI/service is not as thoroughly tested as the GUI so there is a bit more risk to running it.

If the GUI is started while the CLI is running (as a service) it can cause problems including corrupting the current workunit (and all workunits downloaded before the GUI is stopped). Make sure you delete the shortcut from the startup group if you set up the service.

The CLI currently does not talk to the screensaver. So you will not be able to see the graphics until a later version.
<br>John Keck
BOINCing since 2002/12/08

&gt; If the GUI is started while the CLI is running (as a service) it can cause
&gt; problems including corrupting the current workunit (and all workunits
&gt; downloaded before the GUI is stopped). Make sure you delete the shortcut from
&gt; the startup group if you set up the service.

This was posted eight months ago, is it still true?

---

You will still get an error message if you try to start a second instance of BOINC (which is what happens if it loads on startup when already running as a service). So you need to choose one or the other, and as John Keck says, delete the startup entry if choosing to run as a service. It probably won't crash, but it's a risk that it is best to avoid.

What has changed is that the latest version of BOINC (from the Berkeley BOINC site) has the option to install as a service. There have been some problems with that, but the developers have not been idle.

There is still a problem with the graphics in BOINC, affecting mainly some people with ATI cards.

---