The Great Internet Mersenne Prime Search (GIMPS) is a distributed computing program where people from throughout the world download and run the software, banding together to search for new prime numbers. The console application can be run as a Windows Service using FireDaemon Pro, which allows you to have the application start automatically at boot prior to login, start multiple instances of the application and more. This HOWTO will show you how to set it up. You can also use FireDaemon Fusion to manage FireDaemon and other Windows services via a web browser.


GIMPS Setup Under FireDaemon Pro

Download the GIMPS files from the official website to the directory of your choice. GIMPS does not come with an installer, so run prime95.exe and set the program up to suit your preferences. For the purposes of this HOWTO we will use C:\Program Files\prime95 as the program directory.


Download and install FireDaemon Pro into the directory of your choice, typically C:\Program Files\FireDaemon.


Next start the FireDaemon GUI from the desktop shortcut. Click on the "Create a new service definition" button in the toolbar (or type Ctrl+N) and enter the information into the fields as you see below. Adjust the paths to suit your installation. Note that no parameters are required.

  • Executable: The path to your prime95.exe file. For the purposes of this HOWTO, the path is C:\Program Files\prime95\prime95.exe.
  • Working Directory: The directory containing your prime95.exe file. For the purposes of this HOWTO, the path is C:\Program Files\prime95.
  • Parameters: None. Leave this field blank.


Now click on the Settings tab. If you DON'T want to see GIMPS running, uncheck the Interact with Desktop check box & select “Hidden” from the “Show Window” dropdown. You can optionally run GIMPS as the user you installed it as. In the Logon Account field type your username (e.g. Administrator) and then enter the user's password twice in the Password and Confirm fields. You can change the Process Priority to allocate more CPU time to GIMPS or specify which CPU or core GIMPS will run on (in the case of multi-processor, hyperthreaded or multi-core CPUs).


Now click on the Lifecycle tab. Uncheck Graceful Shutdown as GIMPS doesn't respond to it. Make sure "Console Application" is checked.


Now click OK to finish setup and start running GIMPS! Let us know if you discover a new prime.