Running an application before user logs on

Question

1.00/5 (1 vote)

See more:

Hi All,
I need to start a .Net Win Forms application and keep it running independently of having or not a user logged in. It is a desktop application with GUI.
This application captures data that come from sensors, serial ports, connects with other remote instances using MQTT, and controls some other external I/O devices using serial ports and sockets. The client needs to inspect the application's GUI periodically and check for event and alarm reports.
To my knowledge, the best way for doing something like this would be to write one service and one application and make then communicate using one IPC method, but I need to have something working for next week, which makes me run out of time for adapting everything to service+application.

Thanks a lot in advance.

What I have tried:

I've found AlwaysUp[^], will test it now, but I wonder if there is another type of solution for this. Any ideas?

Posted 4-Dec-20 21:51pm

V.Lorz

Updated 4-Dec-20 22:02pm

Add a Solution

1 solution

Add a Solution

Add your solution here

Treat my content as plain text, not as HTML

Preview 0

…

Existing Members

Sign in to your account

...or Join us

Download, Vote, Comment, Publish.

Your Email
Password
Forgot your password?

Your Email
This email is in use. Do you need your password?
Optional Password

I have read and agree to the Terms of Service and Privacy Policy
Please subscribe me to the CodeProject newsletters

When answering a question please:

Read the question carefully.
Understand that English isn't everyone's first language so be lenient of bad spelling and grammar.
If a question is poorly phrased then either ask for clarification, ignore it, or edit the question and fix the problem. Insults are not welcome.
Don't tell someone to read the manual. Chances are they have and don't get it. Provide an answer or move on to the next question.

Let's work to help developers, not make them feel stupid.

This content, along with any associated source code and files, is licensed under The Code Project Open License (CPOL)

OriginalGriff · Answer 1 · 2020-12-04T22:02:00

Solution 1

You can't.
That's the whole point. The only way to run an app before the user logs in is to make it a service - and they cannot have any UI at all, no interaction with the display, keyboard, or mouse.

A service and an application that runs when the user is logged in to communicate with the service is your only route.

Posted 4-Dec-20 22:02pm

OriginalGriff

Comments

V.Lorz 5-Dec-20 6:20am

Thanks for the comment.
I understand, that's the point, to my best understanding for certain time now services can't have any UI and must use other means for communicating with users.
But thing is these guys at coretechnologies have AlwaysUp, as I introduced in my question. They claim AlwaysUp can run the application in the isolated session 0, yet the UI will not be visible, of course.
Using something similar, if the user needs to change any application settings, he/she can stop the service, start the application in normal user space (current session), change whatever is needed, then restart the service again.
Using that workaround I could manage to have the user starting one instance that could be configured for using the MQTT data channels I already have in the application for sharing sensors data and see the overall state.
That's my idea, you think it would work? Any alternative to AlwaysUp you could know of?
Thanks a lot again