Introduction
In some applications it may be undesirable to have the printer's users interact with Producer's graphical interface. In these situations, it would be nice if Producer could somehow run "in the background" and be available to print tags at all times, even if a user is not logged into the computer. To satisfy this need, there is a separate version of Producer that has been designed to run as a Windows Service.
LabeLase® Service is a program that runs as a Windows service that can control the InfoSight LabeLase® tag printers. This program executes as a background service and provides an interface between your computer (the host) and the tag printer. It performs the basic tasks of the LabeLase® Producer software without the graphical user interface.
Before running the service, you must run the graphical version LabeLase® Producer and configure its operation. Specifically, you must configure the printer, create and edit your tag layouts, configure host communications, etc. You basically must get Producer running exactly as you want it using the graphical version before running the service version. The background service will use the settings from the graphical Producer when performing its operations.
If you are not familiar with what a Windows Service is, or with how to install and configure one, you may want to contact your system administrator for help.
Configuration
When you select Setup / Service, you will be asked to confirm your intention to configure the LabeLase® service.
The Service Configuration utility is a separate program and will need to have elevated privileges to configure the service. Windows will ask for permission to elevate privileges and you may need to enter a password for an administrator account.
Since the service cannot be running at the same time as the graphical version of Producer, you should not attempt to start the service while the graphical producer is running. However it is perfectly Ok to install or uninstall the service while Producer is running.
Installation
Click Install to register the service version of Producer with the Windows Service Control Manager. The service will be configured to startup automatically when the computer starts. After installation, the service will be stopped.
Do not start the service at this time. The service cannot run at the same time as the graphical Producer because they will conflict with each other. Once the service is installed and you close the Service Configuration program, Producer will ask you if you want to start the service after you close the Producer program. If you answer yes, when you close the graphical Producer the service will be started.
Uninstall
Click Uninstall to remove the service from the Windows Service Control Manager.
Start / Stop
You should only attempt to start the service from this Configuration Utility if you run the utility as a stand-alone program rather than launching it from within Producer. If Producer is not running, then you may launch the Configuration Utility from Windows using Start / All Programs / InfoSight / LabeLase Producer / LabeLase Service Configuration
Once the service is installed and running, starting the graphical version of Producer will automatically stop the service version since the two cannot run simultaneously. If the service was running when the graphical Producer started, then when you close the graphical Producer the service will be automatically restarted. In this way, the two programs cannot conflict with each other.
Service Login Requirements
Versions of Producer prior to 2.x required the service to login as a specific user, because the program's settings were stored in the Windows Registry under a specific local user account. It was necessary to configure Producer under a specific user account and then manually configure the service to log in with that same account.
Producer versions 2.x and later no longer store the program's settings in the Registry, instead it stores the settings in a file for all users of the computer. Because of this change, it is no longer necessary to have the service log in with a specific user account. The Configuration Utility will configure the service to log in using the standard Local System account.
LabeLase is a registered trademark of InfoSight Corporation