The Core Technologies Blog

Professional Software for Windows Services / 24×7 Operation


Q & A: What is the Status of my Backup and Sync Windows Service?

Q & A - Backup and Sync status
  I’m trialing your product for running Google Backup and Sync as a service. Is there any way to see what is the update status? All I see is the option to click the info and see how long the service has been running.

— Sharon

Hi Sharon.

Unfortunately, no — there is no way for you to see exactly what Backup and Sync is doing through AlwaysUp.

This is because AlwaysUp is a generic “application runner” designed to launch any program as a service.

Once it launches your application, AlwaysUp will monitor the new process for:

  • Excessive CPU usage
  • High memory consumption
  • Crashes
  • Hangs
  • Error messages
  • Popup windows

You can see some of these details by clicking the green “Running” circle on your application’s entry in AlwaysUp:

Googledrivesync.exe process information

The list above contains almost everything AlwaysUp knows. Beyond those generic items, AlwaysUp has no specific knowledge of the application it is running.

In your particular situation, AlwaysUp hasn’t a clue what Backup and Sync is supposed to do, and it doesn’t know how to check the status of the file synchronization. AlwaysUp doesn’t even know what file synchronization is! 🙂

But while you won’t get help from AlwaysUp, there are other ways to see what Backup and Sync is up to…

3 ways to check the status of Backup and Sync

1.  Check Backup and Sync’s tray icon

The easiest way to tell what Backup and Sync is doing is to activate its tray icon (). A helpful window will pop up to show you recent notifications and activity:

Backup and Sync tray icon activity

But there is a problem. When Backup and Sync runs as a Windows Service, it operates in the background (on the isolated Session 0) and cannot display its trusty tray icon on your desktop.

You have a couple of options to see the tray icon.

First, you can stop Backup and Sync in AlwaysUp and run it normally on your desktop. If you don’t have a desktop or quicklaunch icon, you can start Backup and Sync by double-clicking this file:

C:\Program Files\Google\Drive\googledrivesync.exe

Once you are done with the tray icon, exit Backup and Sync and return to AlwaysUp to restart the 24/7 service.

Or you could select Application > Restart “Googledrivesync” in this session to have AlwaysUp restart Backup and Sync on your desktop:

Restart Googledrivesync in this session

The tray icon will appear in a few seconds.

2.  Check file synchronization activity on the Google Drive website

If you don’t want to interrupt Backup and Sync on your computer, you can inspect Google Drive’s activity online.

To see a list of recent uploads and other events:

  1. Open your web browser and go to https://drive.google.com

  2. On the left, click My Drive.

  3. In the upper right, click the information icon to reveal the right panel

  4. In the right panel, Click Activity

    Google Drive activity

Watch out for new (or updated) files on your PC’s hard drive that are don’t show up in the activity stream. Those documents have not been uploaded to the cloud.

3.  Dig into the local synchronization log file

Backup and Sync tracks its activities in a text file. You can find the file in your AppData folder:

C:\Users\USERNAME\AppData\Local\Google\Drive\user_default\sync_log.log

Be warned: the content is very technical!

The purpose of the file is to help Google’s engineers diagnose defects — not to give the rest of us a friendly view of file synchronization.

Nevertheless, we have found file useful in a couple of scenarios:

  1. To verify that Backup and Sync is doing anything at all. If nothing is logged in response to file and folder changes, the software may be dead.

  2. To see if Backup and Sync has recognized a new file. In this scenario, open the log and search for the new file by name.

    For example, this log entry suggests that Backup and Sync has identified and is about to upload our “AlwaysUpUserManual-March-2019.pdf” document:

    sync_log.log activity

The log file contains other goodies for the technically inclined…

Happy synchronizing!

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Why Should I Buy AlwaysUp Instead of Writing My Own Windows Service?

Why Buy AlwaysUp Instead of Writing my own Windows Service?

AlwaysUp was created to solve a simple problem. How do you make an existing executable run all the time, despite reboots, crashes and other annoying interruptions?

To solve the problem, AlwaysUp leverages Microsoft’s technology of choice for 24/7 operation — the Windows Service. A service typically starts at boot and chugs away, uninterrupted, while your computer is on.

More specifically, AlwaysUp is a service wrapper.

When you configure your application with AlwaysUp, a true/native Windows Service is installed. And when that service is run, AlwaysUp intercepts the calls from the Windows Service Control Manager (SCM) and passes them on to your program.

But the service wrapper approach is not the only way to solve the problem of 24/7 operation. Why not roll up your sleeves and write some C#, VB.Net or C++ code to make your application itself a Windows Service?

You should certainly entertain that option — especially if you are an experienced developer with access to your application’s source code. However, here are five questions to consider before going down that road:

1.  Do you have the time to build a first-rate solution?

Use your time wisely

Does your organization employ a competent, professional development team? If so, they should be smart enough to develop a Windows Service. After all, it’s not rocket science.

But how long will it take your team to create a solution that you and your business will be proud of?

To be successful, you and your team must:

  1. Learn the Windows Services architecture

  2. Write the initial/prototype code (in C#, VB.Net or C++)

  3. Harden the new code for production use (focusing on security, 24/7 reliability, logging, etc.)

  4. Test/certify the code on all current variations of Windows (including Windows 10, 8, 8.1, 7 and Windows Server 2019, 2016, 2012, 2012 R2, 2008, 2008 R2)

As you know, producing great software is not trivial — especially when commercial deadlines are involved!

AlwaysUp costs money but it is ready right now. Not next week, not next month — today.

2.  Is coding a Windows Service the best way to spend your limited development resources?

Be true to your business priorities

Even if converting your application into a Windows Service is important, it is probably one of many high-priority items on your ambitious feature list. Might any of the other projects yield a higher ROI?

The days (and weeks) spent learning the Windows Services API and crafting secure, robust code that works flawlessly on all versions of Windows won’t come for free. What other features could your developers be implementing during that time?

What high-priority work will you have to delay as your developers dive into the wild world of Windows Services?

Be mindful of lost opportunities as you deviate from your core competencies.

3.  Are you willing to continue investing in your Windows Services custom code?

This article on software maintenance highlights the dominant cost of custom software over time — ongoing maintenance.

Software Total Cost of Ownership (TCO)

First, there will be the inevitable bugs in your new code. It will take time and effort to identify and eliminate those self-inflicted problems as your code matures.

But beyond the home-grown defects, every patch from Microsoft brings the risk of “breakage”.

For example, Windows 10 build 1803 crippled access to Session 0. This was a seismic event for some legacy software, which can no longer show a GUI on that version of the OS.

The sad truth is that developers operate in an environment of constant change — not always for the better.

Of course, AlwaysUp is subject to the same shifting sands. We too can be caught off guard by the little “surprises” that the folks in Redmond occasionally deliver.

But we are experts in Windows Services. And our team tests each major release of Windows before it available to the general public.

That expertise and vigilance enables us to identify and solve problems very quickly — before our customers become aware of them.

As a result, AlwaysUp is rock solid. When you deploy AlwaysUp, you automatically benefit from 15 years of commercial operation and more than 80,000 installations on physical and virtual machines across the globe.

4.  Do you need failure protection? Email notifications? Advanced Windows Service features?

Do you need advanced Windows Service features?

Converting your application into a Windows Service is a great step forward, but AlwaysUp offers much more — to get you to 100% uptime.

For example, AlwaysUp can:

  • Recycle your application if it hangs, uses too much memory or hogs the CPU

  • Restart your application once per day, to cure memory leaks and keep things “fresh”

  • Notify you if your application crashes, hangs or stops

  • Send you a weekly report showing application uptime, performance, errors, etc.

  • Capture console output to a file

You won’t need all those features on day one, but having them available will provide peace of mind as you contemplate serving a wide range of customers.

5.  Are you lacking expertise in Windows Services?

We're here to help

When you buy AlwaysUp, you get much more than software alone.

You get a knowledgeable, professional support team that has been working with Windows Services for over 15 years. A team that will help you resolve those thorny customer problems — quickly and efficiently.

You will receive help and support:

  • Online (through our up-to-date FAQ, Blog, etc.)

  • Via email

  • On the telephone (toll free in the USA)

Whatever combination works best for you!

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Q & A: How do I Prevent Multiple Alpha Application Servers from Running?

Q & A - Avoid Multiple Copies
  I am using AlwaysUp to control my Alpha Anywhere Application Server. I have noticed that if I go to Task Manager that I would sometimes have more than one instance of AlphaFive running under processes. Would you perhaps have any idea how to prevent this?

— John, TM Software

Hi John. We have a couple of recommendations:

1.  Have AlwaysUp stop all other copies of Alpha

First, since you only want a single copy of Alpha Anywhere Application Server running at any time, you should check these boxes on the Startup tab:

AlwaysUp Startup tab - Stop all copies

With those options enabled, AlwaysUp will perform the following steps whenever it determines that Alpha needs to be started:

  1. Scan the system’s processes for all instances of A5ApplicationServer.exe, the Alpha Anywhere Application Server executable.

  2. If any matching processes are found:

    1. Attempt to stop each one gracefully

    2. Wait a few seconds for them all to exit

    3. Forcibly terminate any that remain

  3. Launch Alpha server, as configured.

This process guarantees that the instance of Alpha Anywhere launched by AlwaysUp will be the only one running — ensuring that your web server gets all the ports (and other resources) it needs at startup.

But while this approach effectively “clears the stage” for AlwaysUp, it will not prevent a second instance of Alpha from starting after the AlwaysUp-controlled instance is running. You may still see multiple copies of Alpha in Task Manager.

This brings us to our second recommendation…

2.  Don’t start Alpha automatically outside of AlwaysUp

Is Alpha Anywhere Server being started outside of AlwaysUp? In particular:

Since you have AlwaysUp managing Alpha server as a Windows Service, no other “automatic launch” solution is necessary. Indeed, having multiple methods in use will only cause confusion!

Please disable all “automatic launch” solutions other than AlwaysUp.

But it can be difficult to find all the places where Alpha is being launched automatically. We recommend using Microsoft’s free Autoruns tool to help you identify (and disable) each location.

Best of luck with your website & business!

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Essential Windows Services: DcomLaunch / DCOM Server Process Launcher

DCOM Communication

What is the DcomLaunch (DCOM Server Process Launcher) service?

The DcomLaunch service implements Microsoft’s Component Object Model (COM) and Distributed Component Object Model (DCOM) technologies, which facilitate communication between applications and communication between computers, respectively.

The service’s display name is DCOM Server Process Launcher and it runs inside the service host process, svchost.exe:

DcomLaunch Windows Service

What happens if I stop the DcomLaunch service?

Many Windows applications rely on COM and DCOM. If the service is stopped, those applications will no longer work.

And, as you can see from the service’s Dependencies tab on Windows Server 2019, several important services depend on DCOM Server Process Launcher too:

DcomLaunch service dependencies

So if DcomLaunch is stopped, these services will not be able to start:

  • Background Tasks Infrastructure Service / BrokerInfrastructure: Responsible for background tasks.

  • Local Session Manager / LSM: Manages local user sessions

  • Remote Procedure Call (RPC) / RpcSs: Controls COM and DCOM servers. We’ll dig into this critical component in a future article.

And if those 3 services are stopped, any service that relies on them will also fail to start.

If we walk the “dependency tree” of services, we can see that stopping DcomLaunch would lead to stopping over 60 other services — essentially crippling your computer! Because of this ripple effect, we strongly recommend that you leave DcomLaunch running.

Indeed, Microsoft agrees. Here is their recommendation for the DcomLaunch service on Windows Server 2016 (Desktop):

It is strongly recommended that you have the DCOMLAUNCH service running.

And this recommendation is backed up by the system. By default, you cannot stop the service or modify its startup type from the services control panel. Look closely at the screenshot of the service above to see that all those operations are disabled.

And if the service crashes or is terminated, you may be forced to log off:

DCOM Server Process Launcher service terminated

So please keep it running!

Questions? Problems?

If you would like to know more about the DCOM Server Process Launcher service, or you have a specific problem, please feel free to get in touch. We will do our best to help you!

Posted in Windows Services | Tagged , , , , | 7 Comments

Need an Official Sales Quote? Create a PDF in 1-2 Minutes

Do you work for a corporation looking to purchase our software?

Do you need an official sales quote — with letterhead, logo, etc. — to get the ball rolling?

If so, our new self-service quote-generator is here to help!

So how do I generate my quote?

Click this button to open the “Create a quote” form:

Create a quote now

The form will look like this (click to enlarge):

Create a quote

Please provide the following information:

  1. Your name, or your company’s name. This will appear in the “FOR” section on the quote.

  2. The physical/postal address to place in the “FOR” section on the quote.

    You can specify up to 3 lines, with up to 40 characters in each line. Or you can specify nothing at all (the value is optional).

  3. Your email address, for sending the quote. The email will also appear as the last line in the “FOR” section.

    Rest assured that we will not use your email address for anything other than sending you the quote! And as per our online privacy policy, we never, ever share your information with anyone.

  4. The software you would like to purchase. All our products are listed in the drop-down; please select.

  5. The number of licenses you wish to purchase.

  6. Indicate if you will be paying by an international bank transfer.

    Unfortunately our bank charges us a fee to receive an international (or wire) transfer, and we must pass that cost on to you. Please pay by credit card if you can, to avoid the extra charge!

  7. Check the I’m not a robot box, to prove that you’re not a bot snooping around our website.

All done? Click the Create button to generate the quote.

In a second or two, the PDF quote will be available for download and a copy will be sent to you via email.

What will the quote look like?

It will be very professional — really!

This image shows a quote for 3 licenses of AlwaysUp (click to enlarge):

Create Quote

Or click here to open/download a sample PDF.

But my quote is too complex for your online tool. Help!

If you’re looking for a quote for multiple products or with non-standard pricing, please get in touch and we’ll be happy to help.

Be sure to let us know exactly what you need. We’ll get back to you within 1 business day.

Looking forward to doing business with you… 😎

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