How to Run odrive as a Windows Service with AlwaysUp

odrive offers remote workers easy access to their file repositories.

To configure odrive as a Windows Service with AlwaysUp:

1. Download and install AlwaysUp, if necessary.

2. Download, install and configure odrive, if necessary. Ensure that you can log in and that your files are accessible as you expect.

3. Start AlwaysUp.

4. Select Application > Add to open the Add Application window:

   

5. On the General tab:

   • In the Application field, enter the full path to the odrive executable, odrive Gateway Manager.exe. Since odrive is usually installed in the AppData folder, this will probably be:

     C:\Users\USER-NAME\AppData\Local\odrive\
     odrive gateway\odrive Gateway Manager.exe

     where USER-NAME is the name of your Windows account.

   • In the Name field, enter the name that you will call the application in AlwaysUp. We have gone with the default Odrive Gateway Manager but you can change that to almost anything you like.

   

6. Click over to the Logon tab and enter the username and password of the account in which you installed and use odrive. odrive must run in this account so that it can find its settings.

   

7. Click over to the Startup tab and check the Ensure that the Windows Networking components have started box. This informs AlwaysUp that odrive needs TCP/IP, the language of the Internet, to do its work.

   

8. Now when odrive starts, it will show this window, waiting for you to log in:

   

   This presents a problem when you are not there to enter your email and password! Fortunately AlwaysUp can work around it by running an automation script -- a little utility that can type in the email and password on your behalf. To set this up:

   1. Download the LoginToOdrive utility from our web site and save it in the location where you installed AlwaysUp (C:\Program Files\AlwaysUp, or C:\Program Files (x86)\AlwaysUp on 64-bit systems).
   2. Go back to configuring odrive with AlwaysUp and click over to the Automate tab. Check the When the application starts... box and enter the command that will log you in:

      "C:\Program Files\AlwaysUp\LoginToOdrive.exe" YOUR-EMAIL YOUR-PASSWORD

      where YOUR-EMAIL YOUR-PASSWORD are what you use to log in to odrive. Please be sure to adjust the path if necessary!
   3. Check the Only box and change the value to 1. You will only need the utility to run once to log you in.

   

9. Click the Save button. In a couple of seconds, an application called Odrive Gateway Manager will show up in the AlwaysUp window. It is not yet running though.

   

10. To start odrive, choose Application > Start "Odrive Gateway Manager". After a few seconds, the state should transition to Running:

    

    On Windows 8/7/Vista and Server 2012/2008, odrive will be running in Session 0. Select Tools > Switch to Session 0 to transport yourself to the austere Session 0 desktop where odrive will be visible (already logged in by the automation):

    

11. And finally, now that odrive will always be running in the background, there is no need to start it again when you log on. We recommend using the free Autoruns tool from Microsoft to disable odrive's auto-start but any "startup manager" should do the trick.

    With Autoruns, click over to the Logon tab and un-check the box beside the odrive entry:

    

12. That's it! Next time your computer boots, odrive will start up immediately, before anyone logs on. We encourage you to edit odrive in AlwaysUp and check out the many other settings that may be appropriate for your environment.

odrive not working properly as a Windows Service?

• From AlwaysUp, select Application > Report Activity > Today... to bring up a HTML report detailing the interaction between AlwaysUp and your application. The AlwaysUp Event Log Messages page explains the more obscure messages.
• Consult the AlwaysUp FAQ for answers to commonly asked questions and troubleshooting tips.
• Contact us and we will be happy to help!