Run as a Windows Service

[tresf]

Enhancement placeholder to run QZ Tray as a Windows Service, milestoned for the 2.2 release.

Note; A prerequisite to starting this task is Headless Support (#51) which is milestoned for the 2.1 release.

Possible utilities for creating a Windows Service:

• sc command on Windows (may not be useful as a standalone tool)
• winrun4j Advanced Java launcher for Windows. Claims to offer Windows service support.
• nssm Claims to handle service failures better than most others.

[cwg999]

In windows 7 I was able to create a service using nssm install qztray javaw -DtrustedRootCert=C:\cert\mycert.pem "-jar \"C:\Program Files\QZ Tray\qz-tray.jar\"" and editing the created C:\Windows\System32\config\systemprofile\AppData\Roaming\qz\allowed.dat file with the location I needed to allow.

Looking forward to a more straightforward solution in 2.2!

[tresf]

@cwg999 another client tested out your solution and shared the following with us...

1. Make sure QZ Tray is downloaded and installed.
2. Make sure you can already print with QZ Tray (click "Always allow" at least once)
3. Download nssm, extract to e.g. the Desktop
4. Open cmd as Administrator
5. Navigate to the 64-bit version of nssm, e.g. cd "%USERPROFILE%\Desktop\nssm-2.24\win64\"
6. Execute the command to install the service using nssm:

   REM set OPTS=-DtrustedRootCert="%USERPROFILE%\Desktop\override-cert.crt"
   nssm install qz-tray javaw "%OPTS% -jar """%PROGRAMFILES%\QZ Tray\qz-tray.jar""""
   (svc name)^       ^(program)         ^(arguments, escaped)
   REM FIXME Escape quotes for cmd

7. Copy prefs.properties and allowed.dat from location: %appdata%\qz to C:\Windows\System32\config\systemprofile\AppData\Roaming\qz\
8. (Re)Start the service via the service manager in Windows.
9. Test the printing.
10. Check the logs in C:\Windows\System32\config\systemprofile\AppData\Roaming\qz\ for a positive outcome. Note: Virtual printers that show pop-ups to save the document (e.g. PDFCreator) will not be shown; this won't work when QZ Tray is running as a service.

[klabarge]

Here's the steps I performed to get NSSM + QZ Tray working.

Environment

• OS: Windows 10 1909
• Java: AdoptOpenJDK 11.0.5
• QZ Tray: 2.1
  • ⚠️ 2.1 supports headless operation. In 2.1, these steps will work, but we cannot guarantee all options will work (e.g. HTML printing Edit: Headless HTML printing has been patched on the 2.1 branch)

Steps

1. Download and install QZ Tray

   • Note: QZ Tray 2.1 + is highly recommended for this. The 2.0 branch does not support headless operation.

2. Launch the demo page(file:///C:/Program%20Files/QZ%20Tray/demo/sample.html), and select "Allow and Remember" to whitelist the certificate. This required because the dialogue prompts will not be displayed when running as a service.

   • ⚠️ Note: Only the initial connection will succeed. Signing will need to be setup in order to print.

3. Download NSSM. Extract this to a sane, safe location. I used C:\nssm-2.24-101-g897c7ad

   • Note: There's a bug with Windows 10 + NSSM 2.24. Use the "featured pre-release version" nssm 2.24-101-g897c7ad if on Windows 10.

4. Create a batch file for launching QZ Tray

   • NSSM does not support environment variables (they need to be manually added to the service). In order to not hard-code the Java location, I chose to create a batch file.
     • If you do not want to create a batch file, you will need to supply this to the If you do not wish to create a batch file, you will need to use full/path/to/java.exe -jar full/path/to/qz-tray.jar in the next step

   @ECHO OFF
   REM launch QZ Tray 2.0.x
   java -Xms512M -jar "%PROGRAMFILES%\QZ Tray\qz-tray.jar" %1
   REM launch QZ Tray 2.1 (headless support)
   REM java -Xms512M -jar "%PROGRAMFILES%\QZ Tray\qz-tray.jar" --headless %1

5. Install the service

   REM change dir to NSSM 64-bit directory
   cd c:\nssm-2.24-101-g897c7ad\win64
   REM create a service called "qz-tray" that points to your batch file
   REM if you do not want a batch file, replace path of batch file with full/path/to/java.exe -jar full/path/to/qz-tray.jar
   nssm install qz-tray full\path\to\qztray-service.bat

6. Copy %APPDATA%\qz\allowed.dat to C:\Windows\System32\config\systemprofile\AppData\Roaming\qz\allowed.dat

   copy /Y %APPDATA%\qz\allowed.dat C:\Windows\System32\config\systemprofile\AppData\Roaming\qz\allowed.dat

7. Verify QZ Tray is not running on the desktop

8. Open Services, find qz-tray, and start it

9. Refresh the demo page. It should now be connected.

   • Remember that signing must be setup in order to proceed any farther.

[tresf]

@klabarge thanks, I've adapted these for our deployment section here: https://github.com/qzind/tray/wiki/Windows-Service