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Setting up the Fax Server to run as a Windows Service
If you are running Windows 2003 Server or Windows XP Professional, you can setup your system to run the fax server as a Windows service, thus eliminating the need for user logon before the fax server can be run. Here's how: Step 1 In order to run the fax server as a service you will need instsrv.exe and srvany.exe which are included in the Windows 2003 Server Resource Kit Tools. If you do not already have these tools installed then you can download them from Microsoft here. After downloading the tools, follow the instructions to install and then proceed to Step 2. Step 2 Copy instsrv.exe and srvany.exe from their installed folder to the folder where the fax server software is installed. The default install path for the fax server is c:\program files\snappy fax network server, so copy theses two files to that folder unless you changed to default installation folder when you installed the fax server. Step 3 Click the Windows 'Start' button and then click 'Run...' and enter cmd.exe to start a DOS command prompt. From the DOS command prompt, navigate to the folder where you copied the two files to in Step 2. Once there, type in the following at the prompt and press enter, to install the fax server as a service: INSTSRV.EXE SnappyFaxServer C:\Program files\snappy fax network server\SRVANY.EXE Important: Your system may require that you convert the path in the above command line to 8.3 (short pathnames) format. If this is the case then use: INSTSRV.EXE SnappyFaxServer C:\PROGRA~1\SNAPPY~1\SRVANY.EXE or INSTSRV.EXE SnappyFaxServer C:\PROGRA~1\SNAPPY~2\SRVANY.EXE In the above command line, "SnappyFaxServer" is the name by which the fax server will be referred to when running as a service. At this point, the fax server is installed a service. We now only have to add a couple of registry keys and modify the service's options and we're done. Step 4 Run Regedt32.exe, the Windows Registry Editor. From the Registry editor, navigate to the following key: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\SnappyFaxServer and highlight it. Remember that 'SnappyFaxServer' is the name we gave the service when we installed it in the previous step. Right Click on the SnappyFaxServer key and select "New->Key" from the popup menu. The key name you want to add is 'Parameters' (without the quotes, of course). Next, right click on 'Parameters' and select 'New->String Value' from the popup menu. For the string value enter 'Application'. Next, modify the string value by right clicking on 'Application' and enter the fully qualified path and file name for the fax server executable... c:\program files\snappy fax network server\sf2kserver.exe (if you installed to the default folder). You do not need to worry about 8.3 format here, it will accept long filenames. The following screenshot will show the end result of the registry changes... 
Step 5 All that is left to do is modify our new service's properties as follows: Open Control Panel, double-click on 'Administrative tools' then double-click on 'Services'. From the list of services, scroll down until you find 'SnappyFaxServer' in the list. Double-click on it. From the properties sheet, set the 'Startup type' to 'Automatic'. Next, click on the 'Log on' tab and check 'Log on as:' - Local System Account' *and* 'Allow service to interact with desktop', click Ok and close the services window and control panel. Step 6 Reboot your system. You will now find that the fax server starts before you log on which is the whole point of running it as a service. |