How to start a local server when Windows starts
Start a local server with Windows by turning on the start-up option in Server by Zaweba's Settings; it opens in the tray with the services running.
Starting your local server along with Windows is an option in Server by Zaweba's Settings. Turn on starting with Windows, and the next time you sign in Server opens quietly in the notification area with its services already running. Your sites are ready by the time you open a browser.
It suits anyone who works on local sites most days. Instead of opening a control panel and pressing start every morning, it's simply there, like any other program that starts with Windows.
Turning it on
Open Settings and find the start-up options. Turn on the one that starts Server when you sign in to Windows. Server records this by writing a value under your own user's Run key, the ordinary place Windows looks for programs to start at sign-in. It needs no administrator rights and affects only your account.
To stop it, turn the option off again. Nothing else is left behind.
What happens at sign-in
Server starts in the notification area rather than as an open window, and brings up its services: Apache, MariaDB and Mailpit, if you have Mailpit switched on in Settings. Before they start, the usual port check runs, so if another program has taken a port in the meantime you'll hear about it rather than have a service silently fail.
From the tray menu you can open the window or the dashboard, start or stop everything, or exit. Exiting stops the services, so nothing is left running in the background when you're done.
Not a Windows service, on purpose
Some local servers install their web server and database as Windows services. Server doesn't. Its services run while the app is open or sitting in the tray, each in its own Windows job, so if the app exits or crashes nothing is left running behind your back.
That also means it never uses the Windows service called Apache2.4, so it won't clash with another local server installed that way. And because it isn't a service, it starts when you sign in, not before. On a shared PC, it runs for the person who turned the option on.
Related options
A separate option starts the services as soon as the app opens. That's useful if you'd rather not start with Windows but still want everything running whenever you do open Server. With it off, the app opens and waits for you to press Start all.
Another lets closing the window hide Server to the tray instead of exiting. Together with starting at sign-in, that gives you a server that's always to hand and never in the way: closing the window just tucks it away again.
A few things to think about
Running services you aren't using costs a little memory. If you only touch local sites now and then, opening Server when you need it may suit you better.
Everything Server runs listens on 127.0.0.1 only, so leaving it running all day doesn't expose your sites or databases to the network, and no firewall prompt appears.
If you move Server's folder, check the option still works the next time you sign in. Server runs from one folder and resets its own paths every time it starts, but the start-up entry needs to point at where the program now lives, and turning the option off and on again is a simple way to be sure. With that set, Server by Zaweba is just there each morning.
