Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[Ad Astra]

I asked this question over at the Remote forum but did not get a definitive answer to my problem and thought maybe the Windows forum is a better place for this question. (Mods please feel free to delete or merge the Remote thread)

http://yabb.jriver.com/interact/index.php/topic,108588.0.html

I am looking to boot my HTPC and start the JRiver MC service without needing to logon to a user account. This way I can control music playback from the JRemote App. Alas I have been unable to find the right settings to do this. All my Windows user accounts have a logon password.

Under tools > options > startup I have "Run on Windows startup: media center and media server"

Anybody enable to advise what I am doing wrong? This is the only thing stopping me moving from evaluation and buying a licence, JRiver MC does everything else I need.

[CountryBumkin]

That's the correct setting. I just run "Media Server" on startup since I don't need to have Media Center open on my desktop.

However, if you are restarting the computer, you would still need to enter a password to log on the computer.
On my home HTPC setup I have Win10 set to start without requiring a log on (not advisable if your computer is also used/has personal data on it).
You can eliminate the log on password by typing "netplwiz" in the Windows "Run" box then uncheck the box where it says "Users must enter a user name and password to use this computer".

[Spike1000]

I'd recommend this tool, works a treat.

https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/autologon.aspx


Spike

[Ad Astra]

Thanks guys, looks like it was my password stopping things from working. I'll give Autologin a try.

[Hilton]

autologin is built into windows. No need to download anything. just configure autologin for the account you want to login with and set JRiver MC to start on boot.
(PS there's no way to run MC without logging in to a user account - that's a windows limitation - not a JRiver problem)

https://www.tenforums.com/tutorials/3539-sign-user-account-automatically-windows-10-startup.html

[AndrewFG]

PS there's no way to run MC without logging in to a user account - that's a windows limitation - not a JRiver problem

Actually that statement is NOT true.

If JRiver wanted to do it, they could quite easily convert the MC server from being a Windows UI application to being a Windows Service application. Windows Service applications are loaded on computer start, so in that case the MC server service could be set to auto load on Windows Start, and the MC UI front end would be started on Windows User Login.

This is exactly what I did with my Whitebear Media Server (so I know what I am talking about). However I am pretty sure that JRiver has no intention of making such a change.

[MikeO]

Am I missing something

You can set up a new non admin user account in windows say MediaUser

Set up this account to have no password. Google how . Windows doesn't recommend but will let you do it

Restart the pc and switch users to the new account . Reboot and it should open up on the desktopof the new account

Now in MC go options >startup and select start MC

That's how my PC works routinely

Mike

[Ad Astra]

Actually that statement is NOT true.

If JRiver wanted to do it, they could quite easily convert the MC server from being a Windows UI application to being a Windows Service application. Windows Service applications are loaded on computer start, so in that case the MC server service could be set to auto load on Windows Start, and the MC UI front end would be started on Windows User Login.

This is exactly what I did with my Whitebear Media Server (so I know what I am talking about). However I am pretty sure that JRiver has no intention of making such a change.

That would be my preference too that MC server ran as a service on Windows. That is how my video server solution works. The service just rans as the userid that owns the media files, no need for any logon at boot time.

Definitely would not want to run with a userid with no password so I will check out the two options to auto logon on with a password. Even this is not ideal security wise and I would prefer the option for MC to run as a service. Any chance of adding to the development wish list please?

[jachin99]

If you're trying to leave your computer completely powered off, then you will probably run into quite a few problems.  I have done what others have suggested, and just configured the PC with an account without a password but you still have to press your username in order to get past the login screen.  Because its a server, and I want 100% availability, I just configured it to never sleep, and I leave it running all the time.  Beyond that, you could try to configure wake on LAN, and maybe configure windows to not log out when it goes to sleep.  If you look around for how to configure power policies, then you can even choose what sleeps, and after how long I.E. your hard drives, your processors, etc. 

[glynor]

If JRiver wanted to do it, they could quite easily convert the MC server from being a Windows UI application to being a Windows Service application.

I don't think that would be "quite easy" with MC's architecture.

With some server-based applications, it certainly is easy. I really, really don't think that's true for MC's design. There are many things in the MC UI that require a full shell. Separating out the code into a separate server executable, which then talks to the actual MC UI (and still allows you to do everything you can do now) would be a huge undertaking, I suspect.

Depends on the application.

[glynor]

autologin is built into windows. No need to download anything. just configure autologin for the account you want to login with and set JRiver MC to start on boot.

Autologin built into netplwiz doesn't always work, depending on how you have your user accounts set up.

The Sysinternals app always works, even with domain accounts and other weirdness. And it is from Microsoft, so not a "weird" application. All it does is enable the Registry based method for you (and "encrypts" the password so it isn't super easy to see in the Registry).

I'd just get the whole Sysinternals Suite, because there are a ton of great apps in there. All free.

[Ad Astra]

Sysinternal's Autologin works well, it also doesn't cause me any issues using remote desktop which is my normal mode of logging on to my HTPC do any sys admin work.