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101459
Join Date 09/2012
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Stardock Start8 Service (Start8Srv.exe)

October 4, 2012 9:32:58 AM from Stardock ForumsStardock Forums

If Start8 like other Start Menu alternatives for Windows NT 6.2 is using the "Start8Srv.exe" Windows Service primarily to 'auto switch' to the Desktop; it would be preferable to have an alternative run Start8 without this Windows Service as the Sever iteration of NT 6.2 already incorporates a faster native method for auto-loading the Desktop which is enabled in the Windows Registry Key "ClientExperienceEnabled" under:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Server\

Which requires Administrative permissions to edit... 

Many Server Administrators will prefer or even require running the the smallest Service payload for the lowest profile attack surface as well as a prophylactic measure against issues that running undocumented or non-Microsofts Services can present not just technically but often administered and limited by corporate policy. 

If there are other features being performed by "Start8Srv.exe" it may be beneficial to migrate them to the other Start8 binaries if Stardock would like to grow the appeal of Start8 for the Enterprise/Sever market (which is considerable), and incorporate an option to use the native load method which is faster.

 

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101459
Neil Banfield
Join Date 04/2001
+1104 sdemployee
Reply #1 October 4, 2012 9:47:56 AM
from Stardock ForumsStardock Forums

Start8Srv starts the rest of Start8 up so I am afraid it rather has to remain.

Adding an option to use the native option for going to the desktop on Server OSes is certainly something we will look into though.

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101459
101459
Join Date 09/2012
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Reply #2 October 4, 2012 10:27:37 AM
from Stardock ForumsStardock Forums

Why exactly would you need a Windows Service to start an application? If you need to automate this both Windows 8 and Server 2012 offers a slew of more secure native methods to automate launching the application...

 

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101459
Neil Banfield
Join Date 04/2001
+1104 sdemployee
Reply #3 October 4, 2012 10:48:33 AM
from Stardock ForumsStardock Forums

Quoting 101459,
reply 2
Why exactly would you need a Windows Service to start an application? If you need to automate this both Windows 8 and Server 2012 offers a slew of more secure native methods to automate launching the application...



 

In the past we have found the other methods to be too slow as Microsoft attempt to make Windows look like it starts quicker by putting off loading up things.

If you have a particular suggested method we are always interested in trying it out.

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101459
101459
Join Date 09/2012
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Reply #4 October 4, 2012 11:12:34 AM
from Stardock ForumsStardock Forums

Well for the Server OS speed of starting Start8 will almost never be a consideration; in fact being able to start and stop it manually will often be preferred or even required. Will Start8 run correctly if the "Start8Srv.exe" is disabled or even uninstalled? 

 As to a leaner approach to a faster start to make the application more like a functional part of the boot environment for desktop systems; there are several “auto-start” event handlers integrated in Windows 8, C#, .NET, JS that are quite 'fast'...  As the Modern UI is loaded first it would likely be faster and give a more consistent user experience to piggy-back on one of its "auto-start" features then a 3rd party service.

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