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What Does a PC Need Before Installing the ABM Service Desktop App?

The ABM Service desktop app is the Windows program office staff use to open ABM Service screens from ABM (Advanced Business Manager) or from the Start menu. Before you run its setup on a PC, check the few things below. The setup itself is one file, the ABM Service Desktop machine setup, downloaded from the ABM Service download page.

What does a PC need before I install the ABM Service desktop app?​

A PC needs 64-bit Windows, ABM already installed and working on it, and internet access to the ABM Service download and update addresses. You also need an administrator account for the one-off machine setup; the people who use the desktop app afterwards do not.

Check these before you start:

  1. Check that the PC runs 64-bit Windows. The desktop app is a 64-bit program and brings everything it needs with it, so nothing else (such as .NET) has to be installed first.
  2. Check that ABM opens and signs in on this PC. The ABM Service desktop app finds ABM's control database the same way ABM does, from ABM's own settings on the PC, so ABM must be installed here first.
  3. Check that you can sign in to Windows as an administrator, or can approve the Windows permission prompt, for the machine setup.
  4. Check that the PC can reach the internet over HTTPS. The machine setup may download the Microsoft Edge WebView2 Runtime from Microsoft, and each user's first start downloads the current ABM Service from the update address.
  5. Check that the PC can reach the SQL Server that holds ABM's databases, exactly as ABM itself does.
  6. Check that the SQL Server login ABM uses to open each company may create tables in the company database, and add columns and indexes to them. The first time a new version of the ABM Service desktop app opens a company, it may add tables of its own, named with the prefix ABM2_, using that same login; where ABM connects to that company with Windows authentication instead, it is the Windows account of whoever opens the company first. ABM's own tables are not changed by this.

There is no ABM Service desktop app for Mac, Linux, phones or tablets. People on those use ABM Service in a web browser, at a company's web address on ABM Service Server.

Note: If the PC has no internet access at all, the first start for each user still works from a copy carried inside the machine setup, but that PC will not receive updates until it can reach the update address; How Does the ABM Service Desktop App Update Itself? says what the network must allow.

What is the Microsoft Edge WebView2 Runtime and do I need to install it?​

The Microsoft Edge WebView2 Runtime is the part of Windows that draws the ABM Service desktop app's screens, and the ABM Service Desktop machine setup installs it for you if it is missing. It is the only prerequisite the setup installs.

During the machine setup's first step, Checking prerequisites, the setup looks for the WebView2 Runtime. If it is present, the setup carries on. If it is missing, the setup downloads Microsoft's installer and runs it silently, then checks again.

If the WebView2 Runtime cannot be installed, the setup stops before changing any ABM Service files, because the desktop app cannot show a window without it. The failure page then says The Microsoft Edge WebView2 Runtime is still unavailable after installation. or gives the download error.

On a PC that cannot reach Microsoft's download servers, install the WebView2 Evergreen Runtime yourself first, using Microsoft's offline installer, and then run the ABM Service Desktop machine setup.

The WebView2 Runtime is shared with other programs, so uninstalling ABM Service later leaves it in place.

Why is the ABM Service desktop app installed in two halves?​

The ABM Service desktop app is installed in two halves so that it can keep itself up to date without anybody needing administrator rights. Programs installed for the whole computer cannot update themselves without an administrator, so only the rarely changing pieces are installed that way.

  • The machine half is installed once per PC by the ABM Service Desktop machine setup, which needs an administrator. It puts the small launcher programs that ABM's toolbar buttons run, the Start menu entry ABM Service Desktop, a first-run installer, a bundled copy of the app for offline first starts, and the update address into one folder for all users. It shows in Apps & Features as ABM Service Desktop Machine Components.
  • The per-user half is the ABM Service desktop app itself. It installs into each Windows user's own profile the first time that user presses an ABM Service button or opens ABM Service Desktop from the Start menu, with a progress window, and then updates itself. It shows in that user's Apps & Features as ABM Service Desktop.

So on a shared PC or a terminal server, you run the machine setup once, and each person who uses ABM Service gets their own copy automatically.

Does the ABM Service desktop app work on a terminal server or a shared PC?​

Yes. On a terminal server (Remote Desktop Services) or a PC shared by several people, run the ABM Service Desktop machine setup once, as an administrator, and every Windows user who signs in to that computer can use it.

Each Windows user gets their own copy of the ABM Service desktop app in their own profile the first time they open it, and each copy updates itself for that user. One person's update never closes another person's windows: if the same Windows user is signed in twice (for example once at the console and once over Remote Desktop) and still has ABM Service windows open in the other session, the update waits until that session has closed them. The one exception is the update offer on the sign-in window: when the sign-in window finds ABM Service already open for that Windows user, its Close my windows closes those windows in every session, including a disconnected Remote Desktop session, and they do not come back afterwards.

The first time each user opens ABM Service, it downloads the current version. Allow for this on a server where many users will start it on the same morning.

Each person also gets their own background copy of the ABM Service desktop app for each company they open, inside their own Windows session, with its own tray icon, so two people working in the same company on one terminal server never share or close each other's copy.

Can the ABM Service desktop app run under AppLocker or another application control policy?​

Yes, but the policy has to allow more than Program Files. The ABM Service desktop app itself runs from each Windows user's own profile, in %LocalAppData%\AbmService, so a policy that only allows programs under Program Files blocks it, and the ABM Service buttons in ABM (Advanced Business Manager) then do nothing or show Unable to start ABM Service: with the reason Windows gave. There is no option to install the app itself for the whole computer: it lives in each profile so that it can update itself without an administrator.

What runs, and from where:

  • The launchers and the first-run installer are in the Desktop folder of the machine half, inside an ABM Service folder. That folder is under C:\Program Files only when ABM is not installed on the PC; otherwise it is inside the system folder ABM has recorded, which may be outside Program Files.
  • Each user's copy of the app, and the updater beside it, are in %LocalAppData%\AbmService. The development channel uses %LocalAppData%\AbmServiceDev instead.
  • A user's first start downloads a signed setup into that user's temporary folder and runs it from there; later updates run from %LocalAppData%\AbmService itself.

The rule that covers all three is a publisher rule for the ABM Service code-signing certificate, which is issued to "ABM Service", organisation "Advanced Business Manager". Every ABM Service program is signed with it, and the machine setup adds it to the PC's trusted certificates, so build the rule on a PC where the setup has already run. A path rule for %LocalAppData%\AbmService alone still blocks each user's first start, which runs from the temporary folder.

Is the ABM Service desktop app the same as ABM Service Server?​

No. ABM Service Server is a different product, with its own setup, that runs the ABM Service web server for a company so people can use ABM Service in a web browser. The ABM Service desktop app is the Windows program for individual PCs.

A PC that only needs the desktop app does not need ABM Service Server; installing the server product is described in How to Install ABM Service Server. If both are installed on the same computer, they share one ABM Service folder, with Desktop and Server inside it, and each has its own entries in Apps & Features.

Both setups are on the same ABM Service download page: the ABM Service Desktop card for PCs, and the ABM Service Server card for the computer that will run the web server. Only one ABM Service setup or uninstaller can run on a computer at a time, so if you install both on one machine, run them one after the other. The desktop app does not need the web server to be running: it starts its own small background part on each PC for the company it opens, and talks to ABM's databases directly. It has no setting to go through ABM Service Server instead, so every PC that runs it must reach the SQL Server; for people without ABM on their PC, or whose PC must not reach SQL Server, use ABM Service in a web browser.