Prerequisites

The following changes are made in C:\gitea\custom\conf\app.ini:

RUN_USER = COMPUTERNAME$

Sets Gitea to run as the local system user.

COMPUTERNAME is whatever the response is from echo %COMPUTERNAME% on the command line. If the response is USER-PC then RUN_USER = USER-PC$

Use absolute paths​

If you use SQLite3, change the PATH to include the full path:

[database]
PATH     = c:/gitea/data/gitea.db

Register as a Windows Service

To register Gitea as a Windows service, open a command prompt (cmd) as an Administrator, then run the following command:

sc.exe create gitea start= auto binPath= "\"C:\gitea\gitea.exe\" web --config \"C:\gitea\custom\conf\app.ini\""

Do not forget to replace C:\gitea with the correct Gitea directory.

Open "Windows Services", search for the service named "gitea", right-click it and click on "Run". If everything is OK, Gitea will be reachable on http://localhost:3000 (or the port that was configured).

Service startup type​

It was observed that on loaded systems during boot Gitea service may fail to start with timeout records in Windows Event Log. In that case change startup type to Automatic-Delayed. This can be done during service creation, or by running config command

sc.exe config gitea start= delayed-auto

Adding startup dependencies​

To add a startup dependency to the Gitea Windows service (eg Mysql, Mariadb), as an Administrator, then run the following command:

sc.exe config gitea depend= mariadb

This will ensure that when the Windows machine restarts, the automatic starting of Gitea is postponed until the database is ready and thus mitigate failed startups.

Unregister as a service​

To unregister Gitea as a service, open a command prompt (cmd) as an Administrator and run:

sc.exe delete gitea