[Windows] Win 7 - RDP from 2nd account, also run SABNZBD + Sickbeard as services
#1
Hello all

I’ve been snooping around these forums for ages and have always been a big fan of XBMC ever since it was first created for the XBOX. However, as my requirements changed, I reluctantly gave up on the XBOX and XBMC and resorted to a dedicated media streamer to play HD movies. All the while cursing it for not having an interface as slick as XBMC.

Anyway a couple of weeks ago my XP PC which I used solely as media storage and server to do all the download donkey work died . This PC basically sat in the corner almost running like an appliance that I would occasionally log into remotely from my laptop over RDP for remote admin, it never had a local monitor, keyboard or mouse attached. I decided to look into replacing it with a solution that would host XBMC for the TV whilst still doing all the download donkey work in the background.

Requirements

• Must run XBMC and play 1080p MKVs flawlessly on TV via HDMI with sound
• Boot up from cold and Run XBMC within a few minutes and run all other services in the background without any user interaction.
• Provide network shares for all other devices in the house
• Automated downloads of Movies and TV shows (SABNZBD and Sickbeard)
• Run Squeezecentre for my Logitec Duet music device
• Allow me to connect to it remotely over RDP for admin purposes whilst running XBMC
• Run SSH so I can access it securely for admin purposes from anywhere
• Must run cool enough and silently as it will be powered on 24x7
• Work as a NAS with upto 4 internal hard drives (some of these were transferred from dead PC).

Solution

For the hardware I decided to use a spare Fujitsu Esprimo PC running an old Core 2 Duo E6300 which would not quite cut it for 1080p with its onboard Intel i865 video card. BTW these cases are of fantastic build quality and run almost silent, a few years old now but I’ve seen them knocking about on ebay for about £50. I’d also been given a Lenovo 5901 remote keyboard and wanted to use it to control XBMC. I also bought a 10m HDMI 1.4 lead from ebay so the PC can sit out of site.

After reading around on these forums I decided to add an ASUS G210 video card. This would solve my HDMI (with sound) output requirement and cure the 1080p playback with the onboard GPU taking care of the video decoding.

OS – I opted for Windows 7 Ultimate as I felt Linux would limit me in some of the things I wanted to do with the PC, I’d also tested Openelec which was another option. I configured an XBMC account that would log on automatically without prompting for a password and would never log out or lock. I then added a shortcut to XBMC in the startup menu so XBMC will start as soon as Windows boots.

The problem I had was, by default Windows will not let you log on it remotely with a different account without kicking off the first user (ie XBMC account). If you try this you will get the following message in the remote desktop :

“The user XBMCPC\XBMC is currently logged on to this computer. If you continue, this user's Windows session will end and any unsaved data will be lost. Do you want to continue?”

To resolve this I had to do a hack which basically replaces the Windows 7 RDP DLLs and adds some registry entries with those from a version of Windows server which allows the box to be used as a terminal server. There is an excellent guide on how to do this at missingremote.com. It’s really simple to do and just involves running a script.

http://www.missingremote.com/guide/h...ice-pack-1-rtm

Next I wanted to make sure both SABNZBD and SICKBEARD would run as services under the admin account and start up when the machine boots up, this way I don’t have to log in remotely to start these should the PC be rebooted. There are two Microsoft utilities that allow you to install any .exe as a service, these are Instrsrv.exe which installs and removes system services from Windows and Srvany.exe which allows any Windows application to run as a service. There is a great guide on how to do this at :

http://www.tacktech.com/display.cfm?ttid=197

Once these two are installed as a service you can go into services management and configure them to run using the admin account.

So, result!

Now, I can be watching a film and still use the PC over a remote desktop for admin work just like I used with the old PC that died. SABNZB and SICKBEARD are always running when the PC is on and I can just connect to them via the web browser on my laptop once the PC is booted. The Library is also automatically updated by Sickbeard once a TV show is downloaded. Everything works flawlessly, I can even use a windows 7 desktop on the TV by minimising XBMC, I just need to press the windows key on the remote, an added bonus. Another bonus is that the media streamer has been redeployed to the bedroom .

I’m really impressed with the Video capabilities of the ASUS card as it only costs £20. As a test I was simultaneously playing 1080p in XBMC, VLC and Youtube(in a web browser) while downloading in SABNZBD it all worked without any problems.

Some of these ideas are probably covered in other posts but I just wanted to share this with the community, hopefully it will help someone and best of all its pretty easy to setup.

Enjoy !
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[Windows] Win 7 - RDP from 2nd account, also run SABNZBD + Sickbeard as services0