Speaker Client running as Service on remote machines?

[GlennWo]

I am new to HomeSeer (1 week now) and I really love the functionality. I'm still very much in learning mode and have found quite a few answers to my various questions and problems searching the forums. This is a great resource. Thank You!!

Now, here is a question I can't find an answer to. I am running HomeSeer on my Windows Server 2003 machine and I have installed the Speaker Client on the multiple Windows XP machines running throughout my house. All of these machines remain on at all times but there is not always someone logged onto the client machines. Is there a way to install the Speaker Client as a Service on XP so that it does not require there to be an active user logged on to these machines for the speaker client to work?

AdvaThanks<THANKS>nce,
Glenn

[Rupp]

No there's no way to run the speaker client as a service but you could simply put in it the startup folder and this way it will start when someone logs in.

[GlennWo]

Yep, already did that but wanted a more complete solution. I'll play around with some W2K3 reskit tools and post back to this thread if I get that to work.

Thanks for the quick reply.

[Fuego]

The issue, I believe, is that Windows requires an interactive desktop session in order to deliver sound. I maybe mistaken, but I seem to recall that this is the limiting factor.

[drozwood90]

actually there is a command in windows 2000 that lets you load programs as services.

I'll see if I can find it tonight when I have some time

--Dan

[rirvine]

actually there is a command in windows 2000 that lets you load programs as services.

FYI: The files are instsrv.exe and srvany.exe
You can get them in the resource kit for the operating system your running.

Ross.

[GlennWo]

Yes, those are the reskit programs (instsrv.exe and srvany.exe).

I was able to use them and successfully get Speaker.exe loaded as a service on WinXP. I did have to disable "Allow service to interact with Desktop" in the service Log On options which means the balloon announcement doesn't come up when someone is logged on but the speaker works whether anyone is logged on to the computer or not. I figured I could use these to make it work but wanted to verify that I wasn't overlooking something in HomeSeer first. It's working great now.

Thanks.

[drozwood90]

Great Ross, thanks, now I don't have to look for it.

I remembered using it for something...I think it was my instant messanger (I use mini-aim, it's a single file IM program) for having HS communicate with my desktop at work...

Although, since I haven't run HS as a service in a long time, I don't run mini-aim as a service.

--Dan