[Xitami] Running Xitami as a service under Win9x

[Brian {Hamilton Kelly}]

In message <200106081055.WAA24910@pagoda.wgtn.cat-it.co.nz>
   Ewen McNeill writes:

> This is largely because no one knows the answer :-)  Windows 95/98
> really are not intended for running services on them; any attempts to do
> otherwise are at best somewhat hopeful and as you have found.
> 
> Basically from what I've been able to find out any "services" you run
> under Windows 95 generally start when you log in, and stop when you log
> out, and there's relatively little you can do about that.  Apparently if
> you install the NT Service version (bs3224d9.exe) under Windows 95 it
> will register itself in basically the way that you have found.

If something is place in the registry key
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run], then
it will be executed (asynchronously) when anyone logs in.  If placed in
the [...\RunServices] key, then it will be executed when Windows first
boots up.  (I make use of the RunServiceOnce key to execute some commands
that configure each machine in the lab, when they've all been downloaded
an identical Ghosted image: works brilliantly.)

What I hadn't appreciated was that something started from the RunServices
key is killed off, like any other program, when a user logs out.  And
there is then no mechanism by which it will be restarted on the next log
in.

Daft, in my book.

> Alternatively you can run the DOS console version in a minimised window
> as you have done (the "-s" switch doesn't do anything under DOS/Windows
> other than print out the message you saw; it does useful things only in
> Unix and OS/2).  However as you've found, it'll be stopped when the user
> logs out.

Indeed :-(

I have now reverted to running the Win32 version rather than the console
one, and it's fired up when someone logs in.

Incidentally, and this is the main point of this posting, I found that
the file bw3224d9.exe on the Belgian mirror site is corrupted.  Instead
of transferring 700kB, it stops after 68kB (and obviously the resultant
file is not executable: it complains "Corrupt previous installation" and
exits).  I had to fetch this file from the USA site.

-- 
Brian {Hamilton Kelly}                                          bhk@dsl.co.uk
    "We have gone from a world of concentrated knowledge and wisdom to one of
    distributed ignorance.  And we know and understand less while being incr-
    easingly capable."              Prof. Peter Cochrane, formerly of BT Labs