In the previous article, we discussed setting up a mapped drive letter using Rclone and the SME EFF API. This mount does not persist across reboots. Persisting this mount across reboots for a user or for use on a Windows Server running applications is possible using a service manager. This article will cover setup of NSSM as the service manager.
NSSM versions can be downloaded here, with the latest download link being 2.24. After downloading, extract to c:\nssm. This directory name is not required, but suggested. The rest of this article will use examples with c:\nssm being the location of the nssm executable.
Open a command prompt and navigate to c:\nssm\win64. (Assuming you are running a 64 bit release of Windows. Then run:
nssm install SMEDrive
Where SMEDrive is the name of the Service you would like to create.
Note: You will need to be running as an account which can create a service. This might mean running this as the administrator.
Assuming that the installation was followed from this article, the following should be used:
Path: C:\rclone\rclone.exe
Startup Directory: C:\rclone
Arguments: Use the arguments that were tested in this article
Note: If using as a persistent drive without user login the –network-drive argument should be removed. This will allow Windows to present the drive as removable storage.
Next fill in the Details tab. This will make the service more identifiable in Windows Service Manger. Additionally if the service startup fails on reboot due to the dependency with WinFSP, change the Startup type to: Automatic (Delayed Start). This can be done later via the Windows Service Manager.
In the Process tab it is recommended that the Priority be set to High or Above Normal. Windows can give less CPU time to background tasks which can hinder performance.
Click Install Service to setup the service.
Windows Service Manager
SMEDrive will now list in the Windows Service Manager.
Right click the service -> Properties -> Log On
In this tab setup the account that Windows should use to run this service. This will be the same account which Rclone was setup and tested for.
If the account does not have “Log On As a Service” rights, Windows will assign these rights to the account.
Right click the service and select Start. The service should start:
Finally, verify functionality with Windows Explorer.
by 
Douglas Soltesz
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