Run Core As Windows Service

I love Roon, but one of my biggest complaints is that Core does not run as a bootup service on my headless Windows server. Having to remote into my server, and manually login, after every reboot (updates, etc…) is really a pain. I have so many applications that run as a service, created by far less talented dev teams than Roon’s. Is there a technical issue with implementing this? Seems like low-hanging fruit.

If this is a simple fix, I would ask that you seriously consider this in the next minor release.

Thanks for listening.

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Run as Roon Server…I have mine set to auto login and roon server runs no issue

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https://community.roonlabs.com/search?q=windows%20service

See @danny’s comments in the first few threads.

@Paul_Chatfield Me too, works perfectly… low hanging fruit picked :slight_smile:

Russ

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@Ratbert and @Paul_Chatfield Auto-Login is not the same as running as a Windows service. I want Roon to startup behind the scenes, when the server restarts, without having to manually login. MANY lesser applications run as such. Every time my server installs updates and reboots, I run into this sinking feeling when I launch remote and it fails to connect. Then I have to remote into my machine and manually login. This happens at least once a week and is super annoying.

@RBM I did see the threads where users presented hacks and workarounds, but this seems like a un-necessary burden on paying customers when implementing Roon as a proper Windows Service is not (as far as I know) very complicated to implement. I’m open to being proven wrong on this.

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My machine (W10pro) runs 24/7 100% headless, no keyboard or mouse even, does its updates unattended and restarts when it wants to early hours of a morning and Roon Server restarts every time no issues. I seldom use RDC on the mac to reconnect to the server and certainly not ever to admin roon server or whatnot.

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@waka_jawaka I have auto login on my windows machine and I have set Roon Server to start automatically after login so a reboot after windows updates for example results in the pc starting up, logging in automatically and then starting Roon, this works perfectly every time, is this what you are wanting?
I admit I did have to right click on Roon Server and set it to start at login rather than selecting it to run with the other windows services but that really was not a problem for me just a difference and my Roon Server just runs Roon nothing else, YMMV

Russ

In these very same threads, there’s also a few instances of Roon explaining why they chose to to place this ‘unnecessary burden on paying customers’:

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Well put Rene. Please allow me to put a fine point on it…

The OP request is not unreasonable IMO. But as Rene quoted, Roon has told us that they used to run the predecessor to Roon as a service, and it was problematic. So running as an application was a deliberate design decision, based on experience, to make Roon more robust in capability than if they ran it as a service.

Likewise I’d like to throw my hat in with others posting here to say that I too, originally wanted to see Roon as a service. But for a very long time now I’ve had RoonServer running on a headless, dedicated Windows, auto-login machine. I have only very rarely needed to RDP into it. And EVERY single time I have, RoonServer has been running.

I have created a task using Windows task scheduler, which start Roon at Windows startup. Select the option “run whether useer is logged on or not.” In this way You don’t have to do a auto-login.

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It may be a necessary evil, but how to setup Auto-login is also covered in the Roon User Guide.

Thanks for all the clarification and tips all. Much appreciated!

Is it possible to run roon in auto-login mode with an account that is not an admin? Seems like auto-login leaves the account accessible without a username/password, and I’d really rather not set that up with an admin account.

Also, are there any downsides to the scheduler task @Christian_Jorgensen outlined above? Seems a little more secure.

Thanks!

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Thanks @Christian_Jorgensen! I set up the scheduled windows task and it seems to work. Are there any other settings you would suggest, within the task, to ensure reliability?

This is not rocket science.
Just start windows Task Scheduler and create a basic task. Follow the guide, at the end (Finish) remember to check the “Open the Properties dialog for this task.” This will give you the dialog box stated above.
I have been running this for almost one year on my headless sever. My server is running server 2012R2. Starting ROON by the task scheduler can be used on Windows 10 as well. My server is booted every day by sending WOL package (wake on lan) and shut down by a remote windows command. The startup of ROON has never failed and upgrade/update of ROON has been done without any issues. My Music library is located on a Synology NAS.

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Just put it in your startup folder and your done

Right, but Microsoft has hidden the startup folder in recent versions. I remember looking for it, found it and did exactly that. Don’t remember where it was, but I wrote it up in a thread here.

Found it:
Set up RoonServer to auto-start when Windows starts. The Startup folder is well hidden in Windows 10, support even says the feature is removed, but you can find it by entering Windows+R shell:startup and drag a shortcut to the RoonServer exe into that folder.

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