My point being, when you install as a service, you don't necessarily need to have BM start at any time soon. You wanted BOINC to run in the background, so why start BM at Windows logon, be it automatically or by hand?

You'd only need BM when you truly need to do something in BOINC, whether that is to check messages, tasks or attach/detach to/from a project. Do you really need to do that immediately upon Windows startup? Or can it wait 5 minutes?

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Your point is taken and I can wait another 5 minutes, but... For instance my previous work notebook (P-M 1.6GHz 1.5 GB RAM), blown with various services and some apps automatically started upon login, took as much as 12 minutes to stabilize (i.e. get idle) after the boot & my login. I could imagine that any delayed service could just begin its start at this moment.

I know what hapens in such case and why is it so and can start the service again in few seconds, but someone not versed would at most complain and had to reboot, because the damned BOINC service (after closing BoincManager) just do not run again :-D

Peter

LOL, I hear you. Although the damned BOINC service not stopping when I want it to is equally annoying. :-D

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With a service install in vista (perhaps in BOINC version 6), can it be installed as "Automatic (delayed start)" instead of "automatic"? This will hold off starting the service until all the regular services have loaded, thus reducing the impact on the system when rebooting or from turning it on. Also, you can further reduce system impact in Vista by having the BOINC apps run with "low I/O priority" and "low memory priority". This will give greater priority to tasks the system and the user are running. Lastly, is it possible to have the task auto restart if it unexpectedly stops? I see it as an option that you can manually set, but I do not know if programs can set this when they are installed.

I have made you a ticket in Trac, TM. See ticket #393.

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cool, thx ageless ;)

Hi. James here. You can set a hidden Icon in the task tray to show all the time. Just open the start menu, Right-Click in an open space on the Windows Taskbar / Toolbar, and select properties from the dialog, and see a selection entitled "Hide Inactive Icons", If this is selected. Select the Customize button (If it isn't then your Icon should be shown there, or there is something else wrong). Then look for Icon / Icons that you want to show all the time, and in the "Behavior" column of the dialog. Use the pull down menus next to the Icon you want to see/ not see, and set it to "Hide when inactive / Always hide / Always show". Then select "OK". Then "Apply". Then select "OK" to close the Taskbar properties dialog. Good Luck!

I have a minor eye-wash issue.

When you boot and BOINC Manager is loaded, the B-icon is present in the system tray in WinXP. However, it does not have a title, so it soon disappears.

I like to have it always showing. If it had a title, I could set my preferences once and forget it.

--Fred

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Hi. James here. I like the Idea you just gave me. Can I get the BOINC to delay start in WinXP? Can you tell me how to do this if possible? There should be an option in the BOINC GUI to do this in any of the installations I use. One that I can turn on, or off this delayed start with. I have a slow starting computer due to an Intel 600Mhz processor. I have enough resources to run after the boot up is completed, as the delayed program start might be good for my computer. I wish I could set the order of start of all programs on my computer during the boot up. I could cause my memory manager to start before anything else. That would give me a faster more trouble free boot-up. Thanks.

With a service install in vista (perhaps in BOINC version 6), can it be installed as "Automatic (delayed start)" instead of "automatic"? This will hold off starting the service until all the regular services have loaded, thus reducing the impact on the system when rebooting or from turning it on. Also, you can further reduce system impact in Vista by having the BOINC apps run with "low I/O priority" and "low memory priority". This will give greater priority to tasks the system and the user are running. Lastly, is it possible to have the task auto restart if it unexpectedly stops? I see it as an option that you can manually set, but I do not know if programs can set this when they are installed.

I have made you a ticket in Trac, TM. See ticket #393.

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Hi. James here. I like the Idea you just gave me. Can I get the BOINC to delay start in WinXP? Can you tell me how to do this if possible? There should be an option in the BOINC GUI to do this in any of the installations I use. One that I can turn on, or off this delayed start with. I have a slow starting computer due to an Intel 600Mhz processor. I have enough resources to run after the boot up is completed, as the delayed program start might be good for my computer. I wish I could set the order of start of all programs on my computer during the boot up. I could cause my memory manager to start before anything else. That would give me a faster more trouble free boot-up. Thanks.

Only thing I know to tell you is to not have BOINC run at startup. Start it by hand when the computer has booted up.

I'm not an XP guru by any stretch of the imagination. But I don't know if there is a way to set the order that programs start at boot.

You might want to run msconfig and see what things are starting at boot that can either be eliminated (all of the itunes/ipod stuff - I'm lookin' at you - grrrr) or started by hand once the system is up and running.

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Kathryn :o)

Can I get the BOINC to delay start in WinXP? Can you tell me how to do this if possible? There should be an option in the BOINC GUI to do this in any of the installations I use.

It being integrated in the BOINC GUI will never happen as BOINC is written for cross-platform compatibility. It won't ever use special APIs for special operating systems.

So if you want to use a delay start option, you have to do this yourself, by either hacking the registry or using a 3rd party program, or writing a batch file with starter links to programs you want to start in such and such order. Or as Kathryn said, just don't allow BOINC to start up when Windows starts up and then execute BOINC Manager by hand.

A quick Google search gave me the following options:
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/sysinternals/ProcessesAndThreads/Autoruns.mspx (freeware)
http://www.absolutestartup.com/ (21 day free trial option)

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Hi. James here. I like the Idea you just gave me. Can I get the BOINC to delay start in WinXP?

"Automatic (delayed start)" is only available with vista and server 2008. It is a new capability for services along with the standard "Automatic", "Manual", and "Disabled".

I wonder if it might be worth making a new client. One for vista and later that can handle the new security changes and OS capabilities, such as the delayed start, as well as the memory & I/O priorities. The other one would be for the legacy 98/ME/2000/XP/2003 OSs

I wonder if it might be worth making a new client. One for vista and later that can handle the new security changes and OS capabilities, such as the delayed start, as well as the memory & I/O priorities. The other one would be for the legacy 98/ME/2000/XP/2003 OSs

It's not really hard to load the libraries dynamically to do call the new functionality, checking first if the OS is Vista or not. That would give compatible executables AND the extra functionality.

My wish list. I have WinXP Sp2 can I get BOINC screensavers on both of my monitors?

John

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John

"Life is what happens to you while you're busy making other plans."
-- John Lennon

My wish list. I have WinXP Sp2 can I get BOINC screensavers on both of my monitors?

John

Only if you have 2 video cards, or multiple RAMDACs on your video card. See here as to why that is.

You still wouldn't be able to get two different screen savers at the same time, though. But that's a Windows thing, not a BOINC thing.

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The next version of BOINC is only going to be a service install.

If you do not want BOINC Manager to start up an instance of BOINC before the service has started, then don't check the option the start BOINC at Windows log on. All that does is put a shortcut to BM in you Startup folder. Do you really need to have instant access at all times to the GUI when you installed BOINC as a service? Wouldn't putting BM as a shortcut in the quick launch bar be easier?

I can live with a default install as a service, but would like to see an advanced install option or such to make it possible to run BOINC w/o any changes in the registry. If this is definitely out of the question, I'd be interested in a(ny) workaround, eg. by copying an existing installation, clear things up for a fresh comp and using a commandline with boinccmd or such to start BOINC.
Main reason for this is that I want to run BOINC only when I'm the one using some of the comps I manage. Second reason is that I like to keep things lean and mean on my 'shared use' Windows comps (so no Vista for now ;-) ). Third reason is that a service only install is a fixed, non-portable installation eg. transported on an SD card.

Third reason is that a service only install is a fixed, non-portable installation eg. transported on an SD card.

Single user install won't work there either, unless you only ever start BOINC from the same computer. If you download work from one computer, and upload it back from another, it will get rejected.

Hi. James here. You can set a hidden Icon in the task tray to show all the time. Just open the start menu, Right-Click in an open space on the Windows Taskbar / Toolbar, and select properties from the dialog, and see a selection entitled "Hide Inactive Icons", If this is selected. Select the Customize button (If it isn't then your Icon should be shown there, or there is something else wrong). Then look for Icon / Icons that you want to show all the time, and in the "Behavior" column of the dialog. Use the pull down menus next to the Icon you want to see/ not see, and set it to "Hide when inactive / Always hide / Always show". Then select "OK". Then "Apply". Then select "OK" to close the Taskbar properties dialog. Good Luck!

Very good advice here, James. However, at least on my system, the lack of an associated name causes the system to forget any changes you might have made to that icon. I have no idea how the taskbar icons work, but it seems to reset anytime there is a refresh of the desktop. It's a minor annoyance, but a slightly confusing one. How can you forget to name your process?

Third reason is that a service only install is a fixed, non-portable installation eg. transported on an SD card.

Single user install won't work there either, unless you only ever start BOINC from the same computer. If you download work from one computer, and upload it back from another, it will get rejected.

What's the reason behind that? I couldn't find any...
And do I read correctly that apart from this rejecting thingy that in theory it should work?
TIA

WimTea

Single user install won't work there either, unless you only ever start BOINC from the same computer. If you download work from one computer, and upload it back from another, it will get rejected.

What's the reason behind that? I couldn't find any...
And do I read correctly that apart from this rejecting thingy that in theory it should work?

Work is registered to the unique hostID and RPC sequence that is downloading that work. If you upload that work with another hostID, the server will reject it as it isn't registered to that hostID.

It would work if you copied the complete BOINC directory plus subdirectories fom the one machine to the other, have that machine crunch everything, then when done, copy the complete BOINC directory plus subdirectories back to the old machine and have it upload the work.

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Single user install won't work there either, unless you only ever start BOINC from the same computer. If you download work from one computer, and upload it back from another, it will get rejected.

What's the reason behind that? I couldn't find any...
And do I read correctly that apart from this rejecting thingy that in theory it should work?

On some projects, the workunits MUST be crunched with the exact same hardware from beginning to end, or it will cause numerical differences.

Because some cpdn climate models are so long (some can have a longer lifespan than an ageing computer that downloaded and started them!!) it's important to note that they all can be transferred to another computer and completed there, as long as the move is Windows to Windows, Linux to Linux or Mac to Mac. Anyone contemplating this should post on a cpdn forum rather than here.