PingPlotter Pro offers some startup options that allow you to monitor with PingPlotter Pro continuously - even if you don't log in and if you reboot occasionally.

See the topic on Running as a service for more details.

Note that when running PingPlotter Pro as a service, the user interface might behave slightly different that when running as an application.  This is particularly true on any file browse dialogs.  Make sure you specify absolute paths on any locations.

Installing / Updating / Removing service

To have PingPlotter automatically run when the computer is started, use the "Install Service" button.  This installs PingPlotter Pro as a native Windows Service (Under Windows NT based systems only).  To stop PingPlotter Pro from loading on startup, you can "Remove Service".  Note: If you install as a service, you need to remove the service manually using this feature before uninstalling PingPlotter Pro.

If you've recently moved PingPlotter Pro, or are using multiple instances from multiple locations, you might need to have a different instance of PingPlotter run as a service.  Use the "Update Service" button to change which instances of PingPlotter is the service instance.  If the service is currently pointing at this instance, this options will be disabled.

Workspace to load

When starting PingPlotter as a service, you can specify a pre-configured list of targets and user interface configurations in the form of a "Workspace" file.  This workspace is created by using PingPlotter Pro in normal mode, then using the "Workspace" -> "Save Workspace" command.  When saving this workspace, make sure you save to a known path, and one that is accessible to the "Service" user. 

Automatically update workspace on shutdown / reboot

If you regularly change the list of monitored targets, and you want PingPlotter Pro to remember those changes, turn on this option.  When enabled, PingPlotter Pro will automatically update the configuration when you reboot or manually stop the service.

If you always want PingPlotter Pro to restart with the *same* targets, then disable this option.  To update the workspace manually, just use the "Workspace" -> "Save Workspace" menu option.

Save collected data on shutdown, reload on startup

If you want to continue tracing, automatically, when you shutdown and reload the PingPlotter Pro service, turn on this option.  Each auto-save event that happens for a target will write a service reload file, as will stopping the service normally (via a reboot or manually stopping the service).  When this option is enabled, restarting the service will look for these save files and automatically resume tracing.

Save File location

All service data files (used for resuming the trace) are stored in this directory.  It's important that this directory is readable and writeable by the "System" user, so it should be on the local machine.  When running as a service, all auto-saved data files will be copied into this directory.