LibreOffice is a free open source office suite. LibreOffice 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 Fusion to manage FireDaemon and other Windows services via a web browser.


LibreOffice Setup Under FireDaemon Pro

Download the latest LibreOffice files from the LibreOffice website.


Run the installer to install LibreOffice somewhere on your hard drive. By default, LibreOffice installs in C:\Program Files\LibreOffice, so we will use that directory for the purposes of this HOWTO.


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 there are no required parameters.

  • Executable: The path to the soffice.exe file. For the purposes of this HOWTO, the path is C:\Program Files (x86)\LibreOffice 5\program\soffice.exe.
  • Working Directory: The directory containing the soffice.exe file. For the purposes of this HOWTO, the path is C:\Program Files (x86)\LibreOffice 5\program.
  • Parameters: None. Leave this field blank.


Now click on the Settings tab. If you DON'T want to see your LibreOffice console running, uncheck the Interact with Desktop check box & select “Hidden” from the “Show Window” dropdown. You must run LibreOffice 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 LibreOffice or specify which CPU or core LibreOffice will run on (in the case of multi-processor, hyperthreaded or multi-core CPUs). You must change the "Job Type" to "Global Job"; otherwise when Apache OpenOffice is restarted, the child processes will not be terminated properly.


Now click on the Lifecycle tab. Uncheck Graceful Shutdown as leaving it checked might delay the shutdown of LibreOffice.


Now click OK to finish setup and start LibreOffice!