1. Yes. The loader is not required as the service performs the monitor & restart functions. Also a daily restart is not usually required on a recent OS, earlier versions of Windows sometimes had issues with memory management and leaks that a daily restart would overcome.

2. As stated above, a known bug.

3. This could be a result of the user account Mercury is running under. I have been using NTWrapper for some time (since before Mercury could do it) to run as a service and this is working fine, so I have not changed to using the built in service functionality.

I love Mercury and I am wondering if I have cocked up or is the service stuff still a work in progress.

MY INITIAL SETUP:
I have installed the 4.72 Mercury service on Windows Server 2003 with up to date patches.
I initially set up the service to interact with the desktop.
Thus when the service starts - the GUI starts.(if you're logged in)

Issue 1
The first issue was the daily restart (using loader).
My previous installation used the loader. I no longer use it (it is now installed as a service - so no need, I could use the scheduler Net Stop / net start etc)
Q:Is the loader deprecated in service mode?

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Issue 2
However if you have the MercuryX module loaded, when the service is started and the GUI appears, most of the modules are 'offline'.
If you remove the MercuryX module then start the gui by either restarting the service or opening the exe all is well.
Q: What is the recomendation in regards to the MercuryX module in service mode, is it deprecated?

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 Issue 3

If the service is marked as interacting with the desktop, but the console is not logged in or the gui is not open then the core process does not process the queue.
The POP and SMTP servers are fine In that mercury will accept mail on 25 and POP on 110 however because the queue is not processed the received mail is not copied to the local mailboxes until the GUI is run.
I have found that marking the service as not interacting with the desktop resolves this issue and Mercury operates perfectly in all respects.

In short, if the service interacts with the desktop then the GUI must be running for correct operation.
Q: Is the above statement supposed to be correct or is there an issue.

Summary:

If you install Mercury as a service that interacts with the desktop and MercuryX is loaded you will be dissapointed.
If you install Mercury as a service that interacts with the desktop and the GUI is not running you will be dissapointed.

Have I misssed anything?

Thanks in advance

Peter Walker (papwalker)
Sydney.

I'm not sure about issues 1 and 3 but it's known that in Mercury 4.7, if Mercury X is running, some other modules load in "offline" mode and need to be manually cycled offline and back on. I think this accepted as bug and have read somewhere (but can't find now) that it will be fixed in 4.73

 Chris