Hi guys, I am using Windows 7 and this is my situation. I have a desktop connected to an interactive whiteboard used for teaching. My problem is that the board doesn't work until a user logs into the system. The board's operation is controlled by a system service which starts on user login. What I want to do is to start the service at Windows startup BEFORE login so that the board is activated and I won't have to use a mouse just to click on a users account. I tried, opening services.msc but it startup was already set as AUTO. I also tried creating a batch file with the command SC start <serviceName> and add it in the registry, in HKLM/Software/Microsoft/WIndows/CurrentVersion/Run but all these only executed after user login. After many hours of searching in the net, I fould 2 more ways, through task scheduler and local group policy editor as a startup script (Haven't tried them yet)....However I am almost sure that a service can run before windows login, because other Software, for example Teamviewer, when you enable start with Windows, it is activated before login. The teamviewer service has the same settings with my classboard service. I even used a registry monitoring software to find out what teamviewer changes when starting with windows is enabled, and the only thing that changes is a registry key in Teamviewer settings about autostart and always on, which are irrelevant to the system sevices as far as I can tell..... Any thoughts welcome. Thank you.

i hope this help you it's about ( How to Create and Start a Service on a Remote Computer By Using the Command-Line or a Script ) : http://support.microsoft.com/kb/252340 Regards, MCP | MCTS | MCITP

What is the account under which the service is started and what on what services the board service depends? (you can see both in the service's properties dialog)

Thank you Las D. Rashid but this is already a service, I do not need to create one. I also use the setting auto that is reffered in there. MCCZ it runs under the LOCAL SYSTEM account and it does not have any dependencies. I also tried to run it under the Services account but with no result either. Maybe I should concetrate on how Teamviewer does this and starts before login... But as I said it has the same settings as my service, with only one autostart setting set in the registry in the program keys. But this is program specific not about services......

As we are not experts in Team Viewer and how they have done it, you might also try to contact Teamviewer at http://www.teamviewer.com/help/createticket.aspx or http://www.teamviewer.com/company/index.aspx.

I will try that. I only mentioned Teamviewer because it's something that I can tell for sure that starts before login. If it didn't I couldn't connect.... But I believe somehow it has to be done.... Some services are definitely required before login....

How many people logon to this PC? Do they use their own logon credentials, or do you have a single account that is used for the whiteboard operation? Is the PC networked or stand-alone? One option for you may be to create a user for the whiteboard sessions, then set the PC up to autologon with that user. It should be a limited user (such as Guest) that won't have install privileges, etc. SC Tom

The computer is stand alone, and it has two accounts. Since I actually haven't found any way for the service to work, I have set the autologon for the user. Too bad I can't find my way with services. One more question, if I launch manually the executable which is started by the service it doesn't start (with all parameters taken from the service properties). It can only start through the services menu. Is that normal?

Without knowing the name of the program/service you're starting, I can't say for certain, but it sounds normal. Not all service executables are true executables (if you know what I mean). Not all of them will start like, say, sol.exe does or other program files. SC Tom