Random Thoughts of a Techie

Right, well, further to my post pointing how to install Windows Live Mesh as a service, the ever diligent ZDNet Journalist, Windows 7 Inside Out author and all round Windows Guru Mr Ed Bott has pointed out that you could also set up Mesh to run as a scheduled task that loads at startup, which apart from not requiring the installation of extra software is also a “supported” method. So here’s some alternate instructions:

• Logon on to the desktop of your Home Server as Administrator
• Install Mesh as per my previous post
• Click the Start button and type Task

• Click on Task Scheduler to load it

• Click on Task Scheduler Library in the left pane and then in the right pane click on New Folder
• Call the folder something relevant such as “My Tasks” and click OK

• In the left pane select your newly created folder and then in the right pane click on Create Task

• In the Name field enter Windows Live Mesh
• In the Description field enter a relevant description for the task
• Select Run whether user is logged on or not
• Change Configure for  to Windows 7, Windows Server 2008 R2
• Click on the Triggers tab

• On the triggers tab Click on New

• Change Begin the task to At Startup
• Click OK

• Click on the Actions tab
• Click on New

• Click on Browse and then navigate to and select C:\Program Files (x86)\Windows Live\Mesh\WLSync.exe
• Click OK

• Click on the Settings tab
• Remove the tick from Stop the the task if it runs longer than:
• Click OK

• You will now be prompted for the password of the Administrator account so enter it and then click OK

• Your task is now created, to start it Right click it and click Run

As before, If you run Task Manager (right click start bar and select Task Manager) you should see the following processes running:

MOE.exe
WLSync.exe

Note: No srvany.exe this time

And if you browse to Devices.live.com you should be able to see that your Home Server is communicating with Mesh (it may take a minute or so to connect):

If you can see all the above, congratulations you have successfully set up Windows Live Mesh as a Scheduled Task.

Leod