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 second 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. Both rows are switches that apply when flipped, and both 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 window hides, a one-time Windows toast says "Ganter Lab is still running", that the server and recordings keep working from there, and that clicking the tray icon opens the window while a right-click exits. The toast is marked as seen only once it was delivered, so a station where no toast could be shown gets it at a later hide.
The tray icon
The notification-area icon is the brand tile with a health dot in its corner. The dot mirrors the embedded OPC UA server's health, from the same source the status bar dot reads: green while the server is online, amber while it is starting, grey while it is stopped. The tooltip reads "Ganter Lab: Online" (or "Starting…" or "Stopped"), 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.
| Menu item | What it does |
|---|---|
| Open Ganter Lab | Restores and activates the window. |
| Server: Online (read-only) | The same state text as the tooltip, 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. Stopping the server is done on Status.
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: both switches belong to the station. Restarting the app to take an update is on Updates.