Google Photos is a photo and video sharing and backup service developed by Google. The application can be run as a Windows Service using FireDaemon Pro, which lets you start the application 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.


Google Photos Setup Under FireDaemon Pro

Download the latest Google Photos application from the Google website.


Install the Google Photos application and run the application at least once to change any settings, including logging into your Google account.


Since the Google Photos settings do not offer a way to disable Photos on startup, you need to disable startup manually since FireDaemon takes care of starting up Google Photos for you. If you are using Windows 8 or later, visit the Windows Task Manager and select the Startup tab. Right-click Google Photos Backup and select Disable. For Windows 7 and earlier versions, launch msconfig.exe from the Start menu's run dialog box. Then select the Startup tab and uncheck Google Photos Backup.


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.



  • Executable: The path to the Google Photos Backup.exe file. The default path is C:\Users\USERNAME\AppData\Local\Programs\Google\Google Photos Backup\Google Photos Backup.exe
  • Working Directory: The directory containing the Google Photos Backup.Exe file. The default path is C:\Users\USERNAME\AppData\Local\Programs\Google\Google Photos Backup
  • Parameters: None. Leave this field blank.


Now click on the Settings tab. If you DON'T want to see Google Photos running, uncheck the Interact with Desktop check box & select "Hidden" from the "Show Window" dropdown. You can also change the Process Priority to allocate more CPU time to Google Photos or specify which CPU or core Google Photos will run on (in the case of multi-processor, hyperthreaded or multi-core CPUs). You may optionally run Google Photos as the user you installed it as by entering that user's username and password in the Logon section.



Now click OK to finish setup and start Google Photos!


Note: Be sure to switch to Session 0 to see Google Photos running, as well as to finish setup (such as accepting the terms of use).