PrintMonitor ProWindows service startup parameters
A print jobs monitoring module of PrintMonitor is implemented as a Windows NT service *. The service starts as soon as the computer operating system is started and that does not requires special intervention from a user. Besides that, Windows NT security system allows restricting user access to the service, e.g. it can be stopped only by administrator. That provides higher protection for the application and more reliable data collected.
Any version of MS Windows operating system has a utility application with a graphical user interface for services management, like starting, stopping them manually, changing their parameters or removing them. The services management utility can be found via Control Panel, Administrative Tools, in the opened window select Services icon. Fig. 1 shows how it looks.
Fig. 1 "Services management application"
Service management application is implemented in the operating system as an add-on for Microsoft Management Console (MMC), hence it has pretty standard interface for such a kind of Windows administration program. The main area of the application is used by services list which are installed in the system. The list displays name, short description and status (started or stopped) of each service. There is also a field displaying under which account/user name a service is started.
To start, stop or restart a Windows service, just select the service in the list and press appropriate button in the toolbar (see fig. 2). A service can be started or stopped from a command line too. For example, for PrintMonitor service such commands will be:
net start pmonitor- to start PrintMonitor service or
net stop pmonitor- to stop it.
Fig. 2 "Service start/stop toolbar buttons"
Every service has several configurable parameters. To view or change them double click on a service in the list to see a dialog box with the service parameters (see fig.3). Print monitoring service of PrintMonitor application is named Print Monitor Service.
Fig. 3 "Service configuration dialog box"
Every service has a startup type which defines how the service will be started during a computer startup. There are just three possible values for the startup type:
- Auto - a service is started automatically during the system startup;
- Manually - a service can be started manually by user or an application;
- Disabled - a service cannot be started;
A tab named Log On allows configuring under what user account the service should be started. Usually, by default services are started under system account. This feature can be especially useful in case of PrintMonitor because the system account very often does not have rights to access network resources, such as network printers (see Frequently Asked Questions). To specify PrintMonitor service to be started on behalf of a particular user, select a radio button This account. Then you can enter user name and password. The user account can be selected from a list by pressing a button Browse.... For PrintMonitor service it is important that this account has rights for printers audit, see fig.4.
Fig. 4 "Service startup configuration on behalf of a particular user"
Recovery tab defines a reaction of the operating system to the service failures. The simplest choice is to restart a service. Using an option of "Run a Program" can provide more sophisticated failure handling.
The last tab Dependencies is for informational purposes. It shows what other services are required for proper running of this service.
At the end of configuring, press Apply button and restart the service.
Notes:
(*) Here we consider services of Windows NT family, i.e. services of Microsoft Windows NT 4.0, Microsoft Windows 2000, Microsoft Windows XP, and Microsoft Windows 2003 operating systems.