Hi,
I would like to see Plex Server created as a service on windows, this way you could have the option of starting Plex Server when you turn on the PC. You don’t have to login to an account. It is great when the power goes out, etc… when the PC powers up so does all the Plex goodness.
I am not sure if you can do this for Mac and Linux but I am sure they would love it too, if possible.
Either create yourself the service via SC or create a scheduled task without having it to start at logon.
Cheers,
Anthon.
Using task scheduler works but last time i checked plex had a dependency on explorer.exe running first before plex is able to run.
Unless there is a workaround for this that I am not aware of?
I’ve done this by enabling my system (Win7) to auto-login at startup.
There are instructions here http://www.howtogeek.com/howto/windows-vista/make-windows-vista-log-on-automatically/ but that method didn’t work for me – I believe because I have other user accounts enabled on the system. I had the follow the “registry” method, as outlined here: http://www.mydigitallife.info/how-to-enable-auto-logon-to-windows-xp-and-vista-joined-as-domain-member/
Quick version, in registry HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon:
[list]
[]DefaultUserName REG_SZ - name of your user
[]DefaultPassword REG_SZ - password (note this is plain-text and easy for anyone with registry access to view)
AdminAutoLogin REG_SZ value “1”
[/list]
Adding Plex to current user start up resulting multiple runs of Plex executable if you are connecting your Windows box by RDP. At least this should be prevented. Allow only 1 copy of Plex Media Server.exe at a time.
Sysinternals (or Microsoft) makes a tool:
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/bb963905.aspx
My Plex VM was configured with this tool. It uses a domain account.
+1 for native support to run as a service.
Same here, it would make more sense in my environment
+1
This is actually the default for linux PMS, and makes sense as the only reasonable way to run an “always on” service like PMS, Doubly so for people with dedicated servers (or a virtual server) just for their PMS (like I do).
I’d recommend anyone running PMS in a virtual machine should run linux, unless there’s a need for a Silverlight plugin or iTunes is needed.
++eleventybillion
It just makes sense for a server app. Mine runs on a server in a cabinet.
This completely turned a friend of mine off of plex… I run it under linux but he went to set it up under windows and quit when he realized it would not run as a native service.
I don’t blame him, using scheduled tasks and other workarounds are just that, workarounds they cause problems.
I second the Notion. It needs to run as a service! This should not be a difficult thing to implement and from what I can tell in the forums this has been requested for a long time and nothing has been done about it.
+1
There no need for it to run as a service. Plex already sets itself up to run at startup. Since I have a dedicated machine built solely for PMS, here’s what I’ve done.
- Set a username and password for the respective account (i.e. Administrator).
- Set the machine to auto logon at startup. As said below works just fine (or any way you prefer, really).
3) Create a batch script with the following: "rundll32.exe user32.dll, LockWorkStation" ...and yes, without quotes.
4) If done correctly, this script will lock your machine as to leave everything running appropriately.
5) Move this into your startup folder located at "C:\Users\USERNAME\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\Startup"
You then just had your machine start up, log itself in, start all processes necessary, and lock itself back up as if it had just been powered on (which it has). Been working for me for the past few months with NO issues as mentioned above.
My suggestion does exactly the same thing you are looking for, but my suggestion for you is...get a battery backup for your outages because those suck, ROYALLY!
+1 for this.
Sorry, created a duplicate request. We really need this as an option.
No, we do need it as a service. I have to run it under a domain administrator account on my local network and I would rather have it running under a service account without having to log on to the server first. If linux users can run it as a background task and mac users (because of it's bsd underpinning) can do the same, we need that ability.
+1
I have posted a solution to running Plex as a service under Windows in another post. It works very well, but the Plex icon is not available in the tray. It's easy enough to create links to duplicate most of what a right click on the icon will do. You need a program called AlwaysUp. It's not free, but it works very well. They even have a setup guide here http://www.coretechnologies.com/products/AlwaysUp/Apps/RunPlexMediaServerAsAService.html. I would still prefer a native Plex service, but this works for now..
In my view there is a principle: Any piece of software that have a word “server” in it’s name should run as a service with low privileged account (local service or network service)
That’s why there are workarounds and tools for this 
