How To Install uTorrent on Windows Home Server
July 2, 2007 — Philip ChurchillI used to use my PC to download torrent files whilst sleeping, but since my PCs are now turned off overnight and Windows Home Server is on 24/7 it seemed logical to install uTorrent onto WHS. The other advantage of installing it on the server was that if more than one of us in the house was using uTorrent it would not cause a lot of traffic on the connection and most importantly by the time you finish this tutorial it will also run without a logged-in user.
Create the New User
First of all we need to create a new user on the server. This is done for security reasons as we do not want to install uTorrent under the default Administrator account. Once this step is completed you may continue with the following.
Install and Configure
Connect via the Remote Desktop Connection as the user you have just created e.g. “WHS” and your newly created password.
Download the Windows Server 2003 Resource Kit Tools and install rktools.exe using the default options.
Next install the µTorrent 1.6.1 Installation Program using the default options.
If this is the first time you have installed uTorrent on your server then a dialogue will appear asking if you want to associate .torrent files with µTorrent. Click Yes. If a Windows Security Alert pops up asking if you want to Block or Unblock uTorrent Click Unblock and if the Speed Guide appears set your Connection Type and the Current Port that you would like to use.
You will now need to forward the port you selected above into your router. Details of router setup screens can be found at http://www.portforward.com/english/routers/port_forwarding/routerindex.htm (select your router and then uTorrent)
In uTorrent select Options then Preferences. Make sure your General screen matches this one:
Make sure that your download screen matches the one below. You can change the location for your Put new downloads in but do NOT use a server share. It has to be under a drive letter on the WHS otherwise the Drive Extender Migrator Service will cause data corruption errors as it tries to move the file onto another drive while uTorrent is in the middle of writing to it, or just before uTorrent tries to open the file to write to it again. The Move completed downloads to can be changed to any server share location.
The other screen should match this one. Once again the Automatic load torrents in directory location can be changed to any server share location. This setup enables uTorrent to monitor this specific folder for .torrent files and start downloading them automatically. All you have to do to start a download is place the .torrent file in that folder and uTorrent will do its stuff.
Using the Scheduler tab you can set your downloads to occur during “off-peak” periods by setting up a schedule if you so require.
As below, under Advanced Web UI Enable Web Interface and configure a Username and secure Password of your choice.
Click the OK button and close uTorrent.
Next Download the uTorrent WebUI and extract webui.zip from the rar archive.
Click Start then Run and type %AppData%\uTorrent. Place the webui.zip into this opened folder (do NOT unzip it).
Next download the uTorrent add-in for the Windows Home Server Console from here or here. Do NOT run it but place it in your Add-Ins Shared Folder (\\SERVER\Software\Add-Ins). Log In to your WHS console and go to Settings, Add-ins the Available tab and then click Install under “Windows Home Server - uTorrent”.
Once the console re-starts log back in to the console and go to Settings, uTorrent and for Server type in http://YourIP:Port/gui/ e.g. http://192.168.1.110:22345/gui/
YourIP is your server name or IP address and Port is the uTorrent Port that you set up earlier.
Next insert your User Name and Password as set up earlier. You can press Test Configuration to check all is OK. Red is not and green is fine. You may now OK out of the Settings and close the Console.
Create the User-Defined Service
From your Windows Home Server click Start then Run and type cmd. In the window that opens type the following which is all on one line, including the quotation marks.
"c:\Program Files\Windows Resource Kits\Tools\instsrv.exe" uTorrent "c:\Program Files\Windows Resource Kits\Tools\srvany.exe"
NOTE: Cut and paste will not work, instead highlight and copy the above line and then right-click in the open CMD window and select paste.
Press Enter on your keyboard. Once the screen displays The service was successfully added! you may close the cmd box.
We need to now create a .Reg file using notepad and paste in the 3 lines of code below.
Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\uTorrent\Parameters]"Application"="C:\\Program Files\\utorrent\\utorrent.exe"
When saving make sure that Save as type is set to All Files *.* and save as service.reg. Double click on this saved file to import the settings into the registry on your server.
Now click the Start button and then select All Programs, Administrative Tools and then Services. Find uTorrent right-click and select Properties.
Select the Log On tab. Click the This account button and enter WHS as the This account and enter the Password you setup earlier for this user account and confirm the Password.
OK out and close the Services dialog.
Click Start, Shut Down then Restart.
That’s it job completed. You can now connect to uTorrent either via the web interface using your browser using the format http://YourIP:Port/gui/ or via the WHS console (uTorrent heading).
All you have to do to start a torrent download automatically is place the .torrent file in the \\SERVER\Public\Torrents folder and forget about it.
P.S. Whose of you with Windows Vista may like to know that there is a sidebar gadget called µTorrent Stats that enables you to Start, pause or stop any torrent and allows you to view the stats and files for each torrent separately, all from the desktop sidebar within Vista.
July 3, 2007 at 10:59 am
Wow, that’s a lot of stuff. Now that I have a Antivirus installed on WHS I will install uTorrent this week. Never used uTorrent before to dL torrents.
Two questions:
1. Why do we need the uTorrent WebUI is that simply to give a web interface separate from the WHS console?
2. When first logging on to create the User-Defined Service-do you log in with the Main WHS Admin account or the newly created WHS account to run third party services?
July 3, 2007 at 11:06 am
Oh, almost forgot… Excellent “How To,” Phillip! Very thorough.
July 3, 2007 at 4:51 pm
Hi TheJudge,
1. You are correct the uTorrent WebUI is simply to give a web interface separate from (and as well as) the WHS console.
2. You create the new user “WHS” from the Administrator account which you then log into to install, configure and setup the service.
Hope that makes sense.
July 3, 2007 at 11:12 pm
Philip,
Sort of. … Please Clarify.
2.–What I mean is after the new user WHS account is created….and now I need to set up uTorrent as a Service…..under which account do I set up the uTorrent Service? My original WHS Admin account or the new WHS account for use with uTorrent? I think you mean the NEW WHS account…
July 4, 2007 at 10:18 am
Hi TheJudge,
When you set up uTorrent as a service you do it under the new “WHS” account and NOT under the “Administrator” account.
July 4, 2007 at 1:22 pm
Thanks, Philip. That’s what I thought.
July 4, 2007 at 3:00 pm
Works nicely and your guide is perfect!
Thanks!
July 5, 2007 at 7:04 am
thanks Philip for the guide.
I do come accross a problem with the new user. I have followed the create new user to the letter but when installing the rktools.exe, it tells me I do not have appropriate permissions. Do you have any ideas? (It installs under the normal admin account, but ofcourse I do not want to do that.
Also a question for TheJudge: Can you recommend a virus software?
many thanks
Jaap
July 5, 2007 at 7:22 am
Hi Jaap,
Are you trying to run rktools.exe from your “Shared Folders”. If so move it to your desktop in WHS and run it from there. If that does not work download it from within WHS and then run it again and all should be ok.
July 5, 2007 at 11:05 am
Hi Philip, thanks for the tip, it finally installed ok by downloading from server and installing from there. I created all directories and named as you suggested, but I havent figured out yet why the download does not start (or show up in the GUI or app) after I dump a torrent in the Torrents subdirectory on the public share. Hope I can benefit from your wisdom once again!
July 5, 2007 at 4:31 pm
All working now. Selecting torrent directory through the search button rather than typing did it. Absolutely fantastic. Philips thank you for the help and thanks Marcel for the add in!!
July 5, 2007 at 8:47 pm
Hi Jaap,
Glad to know that it is all working OK.
July 6, 2007 at 1:56 pm
Japp,
Philip has a nice posting and some of my results here http://mswhs.com/2007/06/26/more-anti-virus-software-for-whs/
Click it and you will see which ones are avail and the one I and Philip choose and the tweaks.
Philip, FYI some of your postings are getting hard to find. Not sure why.
July 6, 2007 at 6:03 pm
Hi TheJudge,
Its because I am posting more and more that things are getting harder to find so I shall add a Top Posts and Recent Comments section to the left column.
October 4, 2007 at 6:33 pm
Be aware that WebUI doesn’t support IE6 and also doesn’t work with uTorrent’s UPnP, so you’ll have to go in and manually open that port.
http://www.jasonpaterson.com/technology/how-to-install-webui-utorrent/
October 5, 2007 at 4:39 am
Hi Etruscan,
Great advice, thanks.
November 3, 2007 at 11:45 am
The issue with IE 6.0 is resolved if you accept the critical update for WHS which installs IE7.0.
WebUI works fine in IE 7.0.
November 3, 2007 at 12:20 pm
Hi Solderman,
Thanks for mentioning that. It does indeed work fine in ie7.
December 4, 2007 at 5:28 am
I really like when you click a torrent file on a website and it starts to download in utorrent automatically.
To get this on the WHS you could do this on the client:
Type this in BAT script ( ex WHSTorrent.bat ):
@copy %1 \\your server name\torrent folder\
Associate the filetype .torrent with the script, in the example it is WHSTorrent.bat.
If your browser is configured to open .torrent files automatically it should now be copied to your server and as utorrent is monitoring the folder it starts to download.
I bet you could do this in a better way or maybe in a another scriptinglanguage. I’m just a novice at scripting.
December 6, 2007 at 3:17 pm
Hi Jimmy,
Thanks for the great tip, it makes downloading torrent files a lot more convenient.
March 10, 2008 at 9:15 pm
Quick question, is that OK to create a directory called d:\incomplete on the ‘D’ drive of the server? Might sound like a trivial question but the thing is that WHS is a bit temperamental about its file structure…
March 13, 2008 at 12:07 pm
Hi Pedro,
Creating a directory called d:\incomplete on the ‘D’ drive of the server is fine.
April 6, 2008 at 4:54 pm
Do I need to use a drive letter if I only have one drive? Since the data corruption bug probably won’t matter then?
Thx
Louis
April 17, 2008 at 3:08 pm
Hi,
thanks for a great “HOW TO” - I did it and it all works fine - only problem is uTorrent only seems to be running when my WHS account is logged in - when I log out it stops and I can’t get in from the WEBUI - if I log back in again it starts up and I can log in from the UI - Any ideas?
uTorrent is started as a service on the WHS box with the “WHS” account login details
TIQA
Tim.
May 12, 2008 at 5:52 pm
Where can i find the uTorrent add-in for the Windows Home Server Console. I have everything except that. can someone send it to me or tell me where i can download it. Please help me.
/ Philip
May 12, 2008 at 8:13 pm
Hi Philip,
The uTorrent add-in can be found under the Add-In List tab at the top of this site.
May 12, 2008 at 8:41 pm
Hello Philip,
But no one works. Do you have it? Do you have any ide from were i can find it. Need help, please
May 12, 2008 at 8:53 pm
Philip,
Just tried it and the link works. You want Add-In List between About and Contact above.
May 13, 2008 at 6:41 pm
Hi again Philip,
Sorry about that. Yes it workt. Thank you
Do you know if by turning on the server to start utorrent with out doing anything.
Thank you
May 17, 2008 at 12:35 am
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June 3, 2008 at 8:07 am
First of all, thank you for the wonderful writeup Phillip. It was a great help to me in getting utorrent set up right.
That being said, the issue of using administrator was brought up earlier on this thread. I got a home server a couple of days ago and was tinkering with getting it to run on a non “Administrator” account and I figured it out.
See link below for a brief overview on how to do it
Its probably already common knowledge but I’ll post anyways.
http://www.wegotserved.co.uk/forums/index.php?showtopic=337&st=0
June 3, 2008 at 5:48 pm
I take that back. I ALMOST got it to work. If works if modify permissions but the minute you reboot, WHS reassigns all permissions for all folders to match the console preference. Basically this means that you cant transfer files from the “temporary downloads” folder to the share folder.
If you create your own share folder independent of the console via Server 2003 network it should work or you have to burn an account in the WHS console so that every time the system reboots the permissions are set properly. Kind of a pain in the butt…I dont understand why WHS needs to reset permission every time it reboots, seems a little excessive to me.
June 25, 2008 at 11:48 am
links to WHS add-in doesn’t work