I've been trying to figure this out for a while and realistically am probably missing something simple, but it appears that the only workable solution is to keep running the 5.8.16 Windows client in order to run it as a service as the new versions don't appear to be installing a service.

32 bit XP Pro Machines in question spend a lot of time not logged in and I want BOINC running during that time.

I don't want boinc appearing in the system tray and don't seem to be able to stop this happening if I run the newer versions (even though the instructions suggest that they should work minus icon, but it never seems to be the case when I log on as a regular user).

I am worried that
1) if the 5.8.16 version is retired that I'm going to be forced to a none service approach.
and / or
2) the app will move forward leaving those service based machines behind.

Either of those options will ultimately mean that I am no longer able to participate in the BOINC project.

Any thoughts or help greatly appreciated - I'm really hoping I'm just missing something simple here and wouldn't have posted except today I realized that this version of the client is almost 2 years old!

Thanks in advance,

Michael.

...I am worried that
1) if the 5.8.16 version is retired that I'm going to be forced to a none service approach.
and / or
2) the app will move forward leaving those service based machines behind.

Either of those options will ultimately mean that I am no longer able to participate in the BOINC project...

I don't think that this will be a problem soon. I'm still running 5.10.45 (the latest 5.x version) without problems.

For the service install with 6.x see Service install = Protected Application Execution mode.

Gruß,
Gundolf

PS: Other than 6.2.x, the 6.4.x and higher versions don't install as a service by default (because of SETI CUDA) and sometimes leave that behaviour behind after uninstalling. So, if you already experimented with 6.4, be sure to explicitly select PAE (Protected Application Execution) mode.

PPS: I strongly recommend not to use versions 6.4.x and above for some time in the future.

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Computer sind nicht alles im Leben. (Kleiner Scherz)

Hello Gundolf,

Thanks for the response.

I had tried that, but was unable to get boinc to run unless the systray icon was loaded.

I was thinking along the lines that there would be a process visible in task manager which would launch the boinc computation at the appropriate time and also close boinc as the system became busy again or am I wrong and there is some other way to do this?

Thanks,

Michael.

There should be a service visible in service manager - drill down through 'Control Panel' to 'Administrative tools'.

There have been some reports of a corrupted registry entry preventing installation as a service - let us know if BOINC doesn't appear in service manager after a 'Protected Application Installation', and we'll go look for it.

I had tried that, but was unable to get boinc to run unless the systray icon was loaded.

I was thinking along the lines that there would be a process visible in task manager which would launch the boinc computation at the appropriate time and also close boinc as the system became busy again or am I wrong and there is some other way to do this?

Thanks,

Michael.

Boinctray is run via the registry. Boinc should still run regardless of this. You could experiment by removing the boinctray run command from the registry and boinc should continue running as a service.

If you need cuda capability it doesn't work as a service install or PAE.

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MarkJ

Boinctray is run via the registry. Boinc should still run regardless of this. You could experiment by removing the boinctray run command from the registry and boinc should continue running as a service.

Whoa... Boinctray.exe does not run the system tray icon! Boinctray.exe runs from the registry, yes. But it is only there to detect if your keyboard and mouse are in use, for when you use the "Run only when idle" option.

Boincmgr.exe is what runs the icon for BOINC Manager (BM) in the system tray. It is also run from the registry. It can be disabled through BM->Advanced view->Advanced->Options->"Run Manager at login?" (take the check off).

This needs to be done for every user that runs that computer.

Alternatively, you can disable it through the registry. (HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run)

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I'm not seeing a boinc service in the process list if I remove the boinctray and on starting boincmgr I seem to get the icon in the tray back.

I feel like I must be missing something or loads of people would be noticing the same issue, but can't seem to fathom it out.

Any help appreciated,

Michael.
PS - I don't even show a boinc service in the services list anymore.

You did read my reply here in this thread about boinctray.exe and what it does?

To install BOINC as a service, see this FAQ, which explains it with screen grabs of everything you come across.

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I'm not seeing a boinc service in the process list if I remove the boinctray and on starting boincmgr I seem to get the icon in the tray back...

Just to avoid further discrepancies in wording: as Ageless pointed out, the icon in the system tray is not the boinctray.exe but the boincmgr.exe (notwithstanding its position in the tray).

And the BOINC service shows up as boinc.exe in task manager.

Gruß,
Gundolf

[edit] If the (re)installation as service doesn't work as shown in the FAQ, try an advanced forum search for ENABLEPROTECTEDAPPLICATIONEXECUTION over three months back. [/edit]

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Computer sind nicht alles im Leben. (Kleiner Scherz)

My last 2 installations showed up strange, too.
I explicitly chose "protected app", but after the reboot there was no service. I had to uninstall, reboot, and install a second time before it worked as expected.

System: W2K SP4 in a AD-Domain.
Also, as posted in another thread, it's very annoying that BoincMgr is started via registry instead of All-Users-Autostart, so I need to patch this manually each time (beause the checkbox in options only works for the current user, so I get dumb questions every day) instead of simply removing this icon. Even better would be to make this behaviour optional!

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cu/2
Torsten