[[!comment format=mdwn
 username="http://joeyh.name/"
 ip="108.236.230.124"
 subject="nssm notes"
 date="2014-06-10T18:16:00Z"
 content="""
* Have to install and run nssm as an administrator. (It may be possible to get it to run as a non-administrator user if the admin sets it up. I haven't succeeded.)
* `nssm install git-annex`
* Set path to git-annex, and set Arguments to: `assistant --autostart`
* In Exit tab, change Restart to \"No action\"
* In Process tab, uncheck \"Console window\"
* Repositories to start up have to be listed in `C:\Documents and Settings\LocalService\.config\git-annex\autostart`
  (rather than the normal user home directory)

After all that it works! Even opening git-annex webapp from the menu avoids the console window (it appears briefly but then goes away).

Most of this setup could be boiled down to a command line invocation, which git-annex could do at install time. However, it would still need to be run by the admin. Luckily the git-annex installation process already only works as admin (and I guess I could close the bug about that if it gets a legitimate reason to need admin..)

Some changes in git-annex would improve this. 

* Maybe have a way to specify the user that git-annex is running on behalf of, and look in that user's home directory, rather than LocalService. (Other parts of the webapp UI, like adding a new repository, also use LocalService as the home directory, which is confusing).
* Starting the webapp for the first time to create a repository still opens a console window, so find a workaround for this.
"""]]
