Complete Walkthrough - Install MagicMirror on a PC - Windows 7/10

[DanClarkCBET3]

Is there a way to make a desktop shortcut to start MagicMirror?

[sdetweil]

@DanClarkCBET3 sure. create a batch file

mm.cmd

in the installers folder, and then use that for the shortcut

mm.cmd should do

@npm start

[CheapDad]

My apologies if the answer to my question is located somewhere in this long thread. As a quick method of bringing some MM functionality to my kids in college, I’d like to install MM onto their laptops and have it autorun at start (like a batch file) and run in a small window.

I see that I can install it on their laptops and I know how to create a batch file, but what I don’t know is how to ensure that a linux program starts in a windows batch file and how to get it to autosize to a small window.

Has anyone done that?

[sdetweil]

@CheapDad use PM2 to auto launch

this is a node application

[mumblebaj]

@sdetweil Don’t think it is an easy straight forward setup for PM2 on Windows to launch the mirror or am I mistaken? Would he have to setup pm2-windows-service and then perform some other setups to get PM2 to work to launch MM on Windows at startup?

[sdetweil]

@mumblebaj pm2 setup does all that …

[mumblebaj]

@sdetweil :thumbs_up:

[sdetweil]

@mumblebaj I was wrong for windows, and setup
see here
https://stackoverflow.com/questions/42758985/windows-auto-start-pm2-and-node-apps

still pm2 is the easiest and same on every platform…

[mumblebaj]

@CheapDad Here is a great tutorial to set up PM2 on Windows.
https://blog.cloudboost.io/nodejs-pm2-startup-on-windows-db0906328d75

[Bobrae]

When following your instructions on both Windows 7 and 10 machines, I get the following error message:

magicmirror@2.20.0 start C:\Users\Admin\MagicMirror
DISPLAY=“${DISPLAY:=:0}” ./node_modules/.bin/electron js/electron.js
‘DISPLAY’ is not recognized as an internal or external command,
operable program or batch file.

The error log gives the following:
0 info it worked if it ends with ok
1 verbose cli [
1 verbose cli ‘C:\Program Files\nodejs\node.exe’,
1 verbose cli ‘C:\Program Files\nodejs\node_modules\npm\bin\npm-cli.js’,
1 verbose cli ‘start’
1 verbose cli ]
2 info using npm@6.14.4
3 info using node@v13.14.0
4 verbose run-script [ ‘prestart’, ‘start’, ‘poststart’ ]
5 info lifecycle magicmirror@2.20.0~prestart: magicmirror@2.20.0
6 info lifecycle magicmirror@2.20.0~start: magicmirror@2.20.0
7 verbose lifecycle magicmirror@2.20.0~start: unsafe-perm in lifecycle true
8 verbose lifecycle magicmirror@2.20.0~start: PATH: C:\Program Files\nodejs\node_modules\npm\node_modules\npm-lifecycle\node-gyp-bin;C:\Users\Admin\MagicMirror\node_modules.bin;C:\Users\Admin\bin;C:\Program Files\Git\mingw64\bin;C:\Program Files\Git\usr\local\bin;C:\Program Files\Git\usr\bin;C:\Program Files\Git\usr\bin;C:\Program Files\Git\mingw64\bin;C:\Program Files\Git\usr\bin;C:\Users\Admin\bin;C:\ProgramData\Oracle\Java\javapath;C:\Program Files (x86)\Intel\iCLS Client;C:\Program Files\Intel\iCLS Client;C:\Windows\system32;C:\Windows;C:\Windows\System32\Wbem;C:\Windows\System32\WindowsPowerShell\v1.0;C:\Program Files\Intel\Intel® Management Engine Components\DAL;C:\Program Files\Intel\Intel® Management Engine Components\IPT;C:\Program Files (x86)\Intel\Intel® Management Engine Components\DAL;C:\Program Files (x86)\Intel\Intel® Management Engine Components\IPT;C:\php;C:\Program Files\Calibre2;C:\Program Files\nodejs;C:\Program Files\Git\cmd;C:\Users\Admin\AppData\Roaming\npm;C:\Program Files\Git\usr\bin\vendor_perl;C:\Program Files\Git\usr\bin\core_perl
9 verbose lifecycle magicmirror@2.20.0~start: CWD: C:\Users\Admin\MagicMirror
10 silly lifecycle magicmirror@2.20.0~start: Args: [
10 silly lifecycle ‘/d /s /c’,
10 silly lifecycle ‘DISPLAY=“${DISPLAY:=:0}” ./node_modules/.bin/electron js/electron.js’
10 silly lifecycle ]
11 silly lifecycle magicmirror@2.20.0~start: Returned: code: 1 signal: null
12 info lifecycle magicmirror@2.20.0~start: Failed to exec start script
13 verbose stack Error: magicmirror@2.20.0 start: DISPLAY="${DISPLAY:=:0}" ./node_modules/.bin/electron js/electron.js
13 verbose stack Exit status 1
13 verbose stack at EventEmitter. (C:\Program Files\nodejs\node_modules\npm\node_modules\npm-lifecycle\index.js:332:16)
13 verbose stack at EventEmitter.emit (events.js:315:20)
13 verbose stack at ChildProcess. (C:\Program Files\nodejs\node_modules\npm\node_modules\npm-lifecycle\lib\spawn.js:55:14)
13 verbose stack at ChildProcess.emit (events.js:315:20)
13 verbose stack at maybeClose (internal/child_process.js:1026:16)
13 verbose stack at Process.ChildProcess._handle.onexit (internal/child_process.js:286:5)
14 verbose pkgid magicmirror@2.20.0
15 verbose cwd C:\Users\Admin\MagicMirror
16 verbose Windows_NT 6.1.7601
17 verbose argv “C:\Program Files\nodejs\node.exe” “C:\Program Files\nodejs\node_modules\npm\bin\npm-cli.js” “start”
18 verbose node v13.14.0
19 verbose npm v6.14.4
20 error code ELIFECYCLE
21 error errno 1
22 error magicmirror@2.20.0 start: DISPLAY="${DISPLAY:=:0}" ./node_modules/.bin/electron js/electron.js
22 error Exit status 1
23 error Failed at the magicmirror@2.20.0 start script.
23 error This is probably not a problem with npm. There is likely additional logging output above.
24 verbose exit [ 1, true ]