Running Hamachi As A Service
Having recently discovered and installed Hamachi, I realized I needed it to run as a service on several machines. When machines reboot, for one reason or another, I need Hamachi to start with the machine, irregardless if someone is there to login to the machine. I decided to see if anyone else had accomplished this task, and found that several people had in fact done exactly that, but I could not find all of the instructions from beginning to end, in one easy location.
I now have Hamachi running on two Windows XP machines, and one Windows 2000 Server machine, as a service. It automatically starts when the machine boots. The following is a list of the steps I took to get there, and they may (or may not) help you do the same thing. These steps include editting the Windows Registry, and unless you know what you are doing, I don’t recommend doing it. I offer no guarantee this will work for you, but it won’t hurt to try will it?
- Download this zip file from tacktech.com, which contains the files you will need to use in the following instructions.
- Unzip these files into the “c:\reskit” folder.
STEP TWO
- At an MS-DOS command prompt, type “c:\reskit\INSTSRV.EXE HamachiService c:\reskit\SRVANY.EXE” (without the quotes). You will see a message that the service was successfully added.
- Run Registry Editor and locate the “HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\HamachiService” entry.
- Add a new KEY with the name “Parameters”.
- Select the new Parameters key, then add a new VALUE with the name “Application”.
- Modify the new Application value, and edit the STRING data with “c:\Program Files\Hamachi\hamachi.exe -srvany” (without the quotes).
- If you installed Hamachi to another folder other than c:\Program Files, you will need to adjust that line accordingly.
- Click OK and then exit the Registry Editor.
STEP THREE
- Open the Services applet (via Control Panel / Administrative Tools) or by running ’services.msc”.
- Scroll down to “HamachiService” and double-click it.
- Make sure STARTUP TYPE is “Automatic” then click on the LOG ON tab.
- Under LOG ON AS, select “Local System Account” and make sure the “Allow service to interact with desktop” is CHECKED.
- Click APPLY and OK to close the window.
STEP FOUR (optional)
- If you would like the new HamachiService to use your existing Hamachi identity information open an MS-DOS command prompt.
- Type “reg copy “HKCU\Software\Applied Networking” “HKEY_USERS\.DEFAULT\Software\Applied Networking” /s” (without the outer quotes). You will see a message that the operation was completed successfully.
STEP FIVE
- Reboot the computer. (Do not close Hamachi, let Windows shut it down while it is still online. Hamachi remembers it’s previous state, so, if you reboot the machine while Hamachi is connected, the service will start with Hamachi connected.)
I hope this brief tutorial helps you get Hamachi running as a service on your machine.
NOTE: As I finished double checking this post, I found two posts in the Hamachi support forums, here and here, which also cover running Hamachi as a service.
Sphere: Related Content9 Comments so far
I just loaded hamachi and ins I just loaded hamachi and installed it as a service. I believe that I followed all of the needed steps.
Now, I’ve noticed that the print spooler stops. If I manually start it, after a few seconds it stops again. :(
Ideas?
Yes, it was working fine before I made the registry changes.
System: XP Pro SP2
RAM: 1024 Gb
AdvanceThanks,
Jeff
I guess Hamachi is running as I guess Hamachi is running as a service now because I succesful followed all the steps..
But I still having problems with the windows policies.
Can anybody tell me how to set restrictions now for different Hamachi users ???
User1 can access two shared folders calles “public” and “private”
User2 should only have access to the folder called “public”
additional note to #2:\r\nnn Wi additional note to #2:
nn WinXP Pro the registry entries of default user are stored under KHEY_USERS\.DEFAULT (my case)
[...] I even have Hamachi run [...] I even have Hamachi running as a service on all my machines. No Comments » [...]
Installed Hamachi as service Installed Hamachi as service on xp pro using Joel Matthias’ msi file–very fast and it seems to work perfectly, though Hamachi’s server still appears to be down. Thank you very much, Joel! You are a true mensch! [can't help but ask, there isn't a key logger or anything in there, is there?]
Hi,\r\n\r\nI have taken the instr Hi,
I have taken the instructions outlined in this entry and created a Windows Installer package (.MSI) that automatically installs Hamachi as a service. I also added a couple of extra steps that should make the process even simpler (killing Hamachi before the install, making sure Hamachi auto connects and starting the Hamachi service at the end of the installation).
This file can be obtained from here
Let me know what you think! I was considering posting this on the Hamachi support forum. What do you think?
Joel
Hi Melvin, \r\n\r\nI had to get m Hi Melvin,
I had to get my hands on a test machine, but here are the instructions for copying your identity to a windows 2000 server or windows 2003 server machine.
Using REGEDIT, navigate to :
“HKCU\Software\Applied Networking”
Click REGISTRY then EXPORT REGISTRY FILE.
Save the file. Then open it in notepad.
Change the two lines near the top from :
HKEY_CURRENT_USER
to
“HKEY_USERS\DEFAULT” (without the quotes)
Save the file. Then double click it to apply it to the system registry.
When you restart your machine, Hamachi should grab the current identity.
One problem I did have, was the autoconnect was not setting, so I changed the AutoConnect value in that section to 1.
Hope it helps.
reg copy “HKCU\Software\App reg copy “HKCU\Software\Applied Networking†“HKEY_USERS\.DEFAULT\Software\Applied Networking†/s
Fails with:
Error: invalid syntax
This is on a server 2003 machine. I also tried it without any quotes as the help example shows, but this also fails.
Any ideas?
Check your Preferences Check your Hamachi preferences and see if you turned on the “Disable vulnerable Windows services…” option…