[Tutorial] Run your client as a service
Having recently set up a dedicated file server at home, I decided to move my torrent client to this machine instead. The machine's currently also set up as a media center running on top of Windows 8.1 and is hooked up to my tv set.
The annoying thing with this setup, however, is that you have to log in and start the torrent client before it will actually download anything. Since I often turn on the machine with a Wake On Lan packet I send out with my phone, it's a hassle having to manually log in.
To fix this, there are two options. Didn't find any thread related to this on sb-i, so I thought I'd share~
First option is to let windows automatically log in. I don't prefer this, but I thought i'd put it down here anyway. You can achieve this by pressing Win+R. The "run" prompt now appears. In the box, type in netplwiz. Uncheck the option "Users must enter a user name and password to use this computer.". Press apply and supply the account and password that will be used to log in. If you configure your client to auto start up, you will be home free. Since I personally don't like this way of working (as you have to circumvent the password security), I looked up another option.
Second way to achieve it, is running your client as a service. On newer windows you can easily create a service using powershell. (If at any point one of the commands isn't working, try looking up how to use SRVANY.exe.)
First you need to configure your client, preferably with a dedicated windows account that you will be using to run the torrent client on. Set up a web remote to access the client with remotely (e.g. Vuze remote for vuze, WebUI for uTorrent, ...)
Then you need to create the windows service. This will be done with the "New-Service" commandlet. Open a powershell console as administrator and type:
new-service TorrentService "C:\Program Files\PathTo\YourClient.exe"
After creating the service, you can find it again in a GUI by pressing Win+R again and this time running "services.msc". Right click and select properties to configure the service visually.
- Startup type: Automatic
- Log On: Select "This Account"
- Select browse and select the account you used to configure the client.
- This is important because settings are mostly stored in the AppData folder for that account (so they are account based!)
- Type in the accounts password.
- Click apply -> ok
It's generally wise to restrict that account so it only has rights to the download folder and doesn't have any remote desktop rights (nor admin rights!)
Note: if you want to delete the service again, run the following powershell commands:
$serviceToRemove = Get-WmiObject -Class Win32_Service -Filter "name='TorrentService'"
$serviceToRemove | Stop-Service
$serviceToRemove.delete()
Of course, this isn't limited to just your torrent client. If you want, you can create a service for other tools as well. Dropbox is another useful tool to have running as a service. (Don't forget to turn off desktop notifications before running it as a service.)
Feel free to ask questions if you're having trouble with something. Happy to help out!
