Running JBoss as a Windows service

[jzstancil]

I am not sure if my problem is with JBoss or is with Window service. Please advise me.

Here is the problem:

In one servlet, we launch an executable (myTool.exe) using

System.out.println(s);

where

s="cmd.exe /C myTool.exe some_options"

This myTool.exe uses some script to invoke Adobe Reader to do something with PDFs.

When I start JBoss with run.bat from the command line, everything works. Each time a PDF is processed, Adobe Reader pops up on my desktop and the job is done nicely.

But, when I start JBoss as a Windows service, this tool doesn't work. When a PDF is to be processed, Adobe Reader doesn't pop up.

We believe that being a Windows service, JBoss doesn't know how to interact with desktop or doesn't know how to invoke Adobe Reader.
Is this true? How do I make it work?

Any idea and help will be greatly appreciated!

[chubbard]

That's right. Window's services can't interact with the desktop unless they are explicitly allowed to do so. Goto services from Control Panel. In the windows services UI right click > Properies on the service you want to change. Choose the Log On tab, choose local system account, and check the Allow service to interact with the desktop.

Charlie

[jzstancil]

Thank you, Charlie.
We did as you suggested. But because JBoss service was running as "LOCAL SYSTEM" while Adobe Reader was running as me, even "Allow service to interact with the desktop" didn't get them interacting with each other.

Finally, we changed JBoss Windows service to run as me and it worked. (We opened the service's Properties and selected "Log On:This Account" and entered my system login.)

But, we are having a new yet bigger problem:
We tested 88 users before we made JBoss Windows service change and they all passed (without the need of Adobe Reader).
We tested 88 users last night (after JBoss Windows service change and without the need of Adobe Reader), we completely failed. At one point, the system CPU usage reached 100% and stayed 100% for a while. So all users were failed out.

My new question now is:
Is it possible that JBoss Windows service running as me instead of LOCAL SYSTEM causing CPU problem?

Thank you for any suggestions or advise.
Jianbo