The VPOP3 software uses several programs. This section gives a basic description of the main programs
The VPOP3 Software itself
The VPOP3 software itself is VPOP3.EXE. This software has no user interface itself, so if you run it, you will not see anything appear on the screen, taskbar or task tray. The only place you will see it is in the Processes tab in Windows Task Manager (you may have to Show Processes For All Users).
The fact that VPOP3 is invisible can confuse some people, thinking that the software has not started, but it could well be running, especially if you see it in the Processes tab in Task Manager.
In VPOP3 v1.x, you could run VPOP3.EXE to access the settings, now this won't do anything. Instead, you should either right-click the Status Monitor and choose VPOP3 Settings, or go to Start » Programs » VPOP3 » Configure VPOP3 |
In the current versions of VPOP3, if you try to run VPOP3 several times, any instances after the first should automatically terminate once they detect another copy running.
The VPOP3 Status Monitor
The VPOP3 status monitor is a small program (VPOP3STATUS.EXE) which communicates with VPOP3 using TCP/IP and displays an icon (
) in the Windows task tray. This icon is the way most VPOP3 users access the VPOP3 status and settings.
For more information, see this article.
The VPOP3 Service Controller
If you run VPOP3 as a service (recommended), then a small program called VPOP3_SVC.EXE will run, this talks to the Windows Service Manager and controls VPOP3.EXE appropriately. VPOP3_SVC.EXE will also automatically restart VPOP3.EXE if it detects it crashing unexpectedly.
For more information, see this article.
The VPOP3DB Service
In the Windows Services list you will see a service called VPOP3DB. This is an instance of the PostgreSQL database server. It is called VPOP3DB in the services list to make it clear that it is part of VPOP3, so people hopefully will not uninstall or disable it accidentally.
It is possible to use VPOP3 with a separate installation of PostgreSQL (possibly on a different PC) rather than the standard one, but this is an advanced topic.
VPOP3 requires access to the PostgreSQL service to run at all - all settings, users, messages etc are stored in the PostgreSQL database. By default, the VPOP3 service is marked as "dependant" on the VPOP3DB service so Windows will start the database service first.
For more details about the PostgreSQL installation, see the PostgreSQL installation details topic.
