Startup
Starting with Windows, what closing the window does, and the tray icon that keeps the station reachable while it runs in the background.
Startup is the third row of the GENERAL group on the Settings page. It decides when the station process runs: whether Windows launches it at sign-in, and whether closing the window ends it or hides it; and whether the station opens on the Welcome page. All three rows are switches that apply when flipped, and all three take the Change settings permission.
Start with Windows
| Field | What it is | Values / default | Effect |
|---|---|---|---|
| Start with Windows | "Launch automatically when you sign in to Windows, hidden in the notification area." | On or off. Off until you turn it on. | On: writes a GanterLab value under the current user's Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run key, launching the installed executable with --tray, so a Windows sign-in boots the station hidden, serving from the notification area. Off: removes that value and the Windows "startup approved" mark beside it. |
The registry is the only source of truth; nothing about this switch is kept in the configuration database. The switch re-reads the registry every time the page opens, so an entry you disabled in Task Manager, Startup reads as off here, and turning the switch on again is an explicit re-enable that clears that mark. Only this switch writes the key: the app never rewrites the value at boot, and it never re-imposes an entry Task Manager disabled. The registration is per user and needs no administrator.
The write is a station mutation, refused while the station accepts no change. While the runtime is stopped this page is not drawn at all (see Settings). A hidden boot opens no window; the tray icon is the way in.
Keep running in the background when closed
| Field | What it is | Values / default | Effect |
|---|---|---|---|
| Keep running in the background when closed | "Closing the window keeps acquisition and recording running in the notification area. Use the tray icon's Exit to quit." | On or off. On by default. | On: the window's close button hides the window; the host, the embedded OPC UA server, device communication, recordings, the web host and agent access all keep running. Off: the close button exits the application through the same teardown as Exit. |
The first time the close button hides the window, a small window of the app's own, Ganter Lab keeps running, says what keeps working, where the tray icon is (next to the clock, or behind the ^ arrow on the taskbar) and that turning this switch off makes the close button exit every time. It offers Continue in the background (the default, also chosen by Esc) and Exit now, which exits this once and leaves the switch on. After either answer it never appears again on this station. With the switch off, the close button exits with no notice. More under The window.
Show the Welcome page in the menu
| Field | What it is | Values / default | Effect |
|---|---|---|---|
| Show the Welcome page in the menu | "It explains every area of the program, one step at a time. While it is in the menu, the station opens on it." | On or off. On by default, on a new station and on one updated from an earlier version alike. | On: Welcome is the first entry of the rail for a role that sets something up, and the station opens on it. Off: the entry leaves the rail of every screen at once, and the station opens on View. |
The page's own Don't show again turns this switch off; turning it back on here returns the page to the rail. The setting belongs to the station, so it is the same for every role and every screen.
The tray icon
The notification-area icon is the brand tile with a health dot in its corner. The dot mirrors the Connector's health, from the same source and in the same words as the status bar's health: green while every device reads, amber while one is unstable, red while one is not communicating, grey while the Connector is stopped. The embedded OPC UA server is not part of it: the Connector reads while the server is stopped. The tooltip reads "Ganter Lab: Connector: online" (or "Ganter Lab: Connector: Furnace not communicating", the status bar's line), with "(recording)" appended while an acquisition records; that marker is refreshed every fifteen seconds. A left-click opens the window; a right-click opens the menu. With an Icon and a Name set under Settings, Branding, the icon is the station's Icon with the same dot, and the tooltip and the menu say the station's Name in place of Ganter Lab ("Acme: Connector: online").
| Menu item | What it does |
|---|---|
| Open Ganter Lab | Restores and activates the window. With a Name under Branding, the item says Open followed by that name. |
| Connector: online (read-only) | The status bar's health line, as the tooltip says it, with the recording marker. It is a status line, not a command. |
| Exit | Ends the process through the single teardown path. |
The menu deliberately has no start or stop for the server: a stray click must not take down the clients reading from this station. Turning the server off is done on its row in the Connector.
Exit
Exit, whether from the tray, from the close button with the switch off, or from Windows ending the session, runs one teardown: the web host, the live-series collector, agent access, the health monitor, the process runtime, the embedded OPC UA server, the logic runtime (flushing retained memory values), the event journal and finally the host with the acquisition store. Each step is time-boxed, so a step that hangs is journaled and skipped rather than stranding the process, and the process then ends for certain.
If a recording is running, Exit first asks. A dialog titled "A recording is running" explains: "Exiting stops data acquisition. Everything recorded so far is saved and reopens the next time you start Ganter Lab, but nothing new is recorded while the app is closed.", with Keep running and Exit anyway. Keep running leaves everything as it was, the tray icon included. A Windows session end never waits on that question; it flushes what the grace period allows.
Launching the app again while an instance already holds the same data root does not start a second copy: the new launch signals the running one to show its window, then exits.
What this section does not do
There is no scheduled start or stop, no "start minimized" separate from Start with Windows (a Windows sign-in boot is always hidden), no run-as-service mode, and no per-user setting: every switch here belongs to the station. Restarting the app to take an update is on Updates.