Can a local server run in the system tray?

A local server can live in the system tray, and Server by Zaweba is built to work that way. Closing its window can hide it to the tray instead of quitting, and the tray menu opens the window or the dashboard, starts or stops everything, or exits. Your sites keep running while the window is out of the way.

The tray, or notification area, is the row of small icons by the clock. Programs that need to keep running without taking up space on the taskbar sit there, and a local web server is a natural fit: you want it on while you work, but you rarely need to look at it.

How it behaves

Server's services, Apache, MariaDB and Mailpit, run while the app is open or in the tray. With the close-to-tray option on in Settings, closing the window doesn't stop anything. Server tucks itself away and the sites stay up.

Right-click the tray icon for the menu. From there you can open the main window, open the dashboard web page with your sites and connection details, start or stop everything in one go, or exit. Exit stops the services as Server closes, so nothing is left behind.

Why not just a Windows service?

Some local servers install Apache and the database as Windows services, which run in the background whether or not any program is open. That has its uses, but it also means things keep running when you've forgotten about them, and it can clash with other installs.

Server takes a different approach. Its services are not Windows services. Each one runs in its own Windows job tied to the app, so if the app exits or crashes, the services go with it. It also never uses the Windows service named Apache2.4, which means another local server installed that way isn't disturbed. The tray gives you the convenience of something always running, while keeping it visible and under your control.

Making it fully hands-off

Two more options in Settings go well with the tray. One starts Server when you sign in to Windows, straight into the tray with the services running. Another starts the services as soon as the app opens, for when you launch it yourself. With both on, your local sites are ready whenever the PC is, and the window only appears when you ask for it.

If you prefer to start the services yourself each time, leave those off. The tray still works the same way once things are running.

Keeping an eye on it from the tray

When you want more detail, open the window. The control panel shows a card for each service with a status light, its ports, its process id and the last lines of its log, plus a status bar listing every port. If something has gone wrong while Server was in the tray, that's the quickest place to see it, and the Logs page has the full logs.

The dashboard, opened from the tray menu, is handy on its own: it lists your sites with their addresses and PHP versions and links to Adminer and Mailpit, all in the browser you're already using.

Is it safe to leave running?

Everything Server runs listens on 127.0.0.1, so only your own PC can reach it. Leaving it in the tray all day doesn't open your sites or databases to the network, and there's no firewall prompt. The cost is a little memory for the running services, which you can free at any time with stop everything from the tray menu.

For day-to-day work, keeping Server by Zaweba in the tray is the easiest way to have a local server that's always on and never in the way.