Dropbox as a service Server 2008

What I did So here are the steps that I took in order to get everything working. Quite a few steps but I wanted it detailed enough so that anyone could follow.

  • Right click the Dropbox icon in your system tray and select Preferences
  • Deselect Show desktop notifications
  • Deselect Start Dropbox on system startup
  • Download and install Windows Server 2003 Resource Kit Tools. It will warn you about incompatibility, but you can safely ignore this (or at least I did).
  • Open the Command Console (Run –> cmd).
  • Enter sc create DropboxService binPath= C:\Program Files (x86)\Windows Resource Kits\Tools\srvany.exe DisplayName= “Dropbox Service”
  • Open RegEdit and navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\DropboxService\
  • Create a new key named Parameters
  • Create a string value called Application and enter the full path to your Dropbox executable. Typically C:\Users****\AppData\Roaming\Dropbox\bin\Dropbox.exe
  • Open Services (Start Menu –> Administrative Tools –> Services)
  • Locate your Dropbox Service, right click and select properties.
  • Set the service to Autostart
  • Under the Log on tab, check Allow service to interact with desktop.
  • Press Apply
  • Start the service
  • You will get a popup asking for permissions to display the Dropbox configuration - Accept.
  • Add your user info

Done!


  • Download Windows Server 2003 Resource Kit Files (2008 can use these)
  • Install it into my own workstation, copied files srvany and instsrv into server C:\windows\system32
  • Start command prompt with elevated rights with the user of choice
  • Install : “Dropbox 1.1.45.exe” /D=C:\Program Files\Dropbox
  • Run through setup, determine local folder etc
  • Start Dropbox, Preferences -> uncheck “Show desktop notifications” and “Start Dropbox on system startup”
  • Exit dropbox
  • Create Service -> C:\Windows\System32\instsrv.exe” DropBoxService “C:\Windows\System32\srvany.exe -> Success
  • Regedit -> HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\DropBoxService
  • Create KEY Parameters
  • Create String value “Application”, value C:\Program Files\Dropbox\Dropbox.exe /home
  • Create String value AppDirectory, value C:\Program Files\Dropbox
  • Services -> DropBoxService -> Properties -> Log on -> Use user of choice
  • Start service

Jason Kulatunga

Devops & Infrastructure guy @Gusto (ex-Adobe). I write about, and play with, all sorts of new tech. All opinions are my own.

San Francisco, CA blog.thesparktree.com

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