Windows GUI Guide

Overview

mcaster1win.exe is the native Windows GUI front-end for Mcaster1DNAS. It wraps the same server core (mcaster1.exe) in an MFC dialog-based application with:

• Resizable main window (ResizableLib by Paolo Messina)
• Four tabbed panels: Status, Stats, Config, Log
• Server start/stop with auto-start option
• System tray minimize
• Real-time uptime clock and system clock
• Real-time log tailing for all log files
• Full command-line interface for scripted use
• SSL certificate generation (see SSL Certificate Setup)
• Config file auto-discovery with GetOpenFileName fallback dialog

First Launch

On first launch, the application searches for a config file in this order:

1. <exe directory>\mcaster1dnas.yaml
2. <exe directory>\mcaster1dnas.xml
3. .\mcaster1dnas.yaml (current working directory)
4. .\mcaster1dnas.xml
5. If none found → File Open dialog (GetOpenFileName) prompts you to locate a .yaml or .xml config file

You can also pass the config path explicitly:

mcaster1win.exe -c "C:\mcaster1\mcaster1dnas.yaml"

Main Window Layout

Header Area

Status Bar (Bottom)

The bottom status bar always shows the current local system time:

System Time:  Mon Feb 22 2026   06:45:12 PM

Updates every second regardless of server state.

Tab Panels

Status Tab

Displays global server statistics as a list view with two columns (Statistic / Value). Stats include: server uptime, total bytes sent, active listeners, active sources, connected clients, and more. The list auto-refreshes every 500ms while the server is running.

Stats Tab

Shows per-source statistics with two list views:

• Left (Sources): All currently connected sources / mount points
• Right (Statistics): Statistics for the selected source

Usage: Click a source in the left list → statistics for that source appear on the right. Double-click to refresh. Right-click a statistic → context menu to add it to the global stats list.

Config Tab

Displays the raw contents of the loaded config file (YAML or XML) in a multi-line text editor. You can edit the config directly and save; changes take effect on next server restart.

Access via the menu: Configuration → Edit Configuration

Log Tab

Real-time log viewer with sub-tabs for each log file:

• Access Log (access.log) — HTTP request log, one line per request
• Error Log (error.log) — server events, warnings, and errors
• Playlist Log (playlist.log) — track changes and metadata events

Logs are polled every 500ms using _fsopen with _SH_DENYNO (shared read mode) so the viewer works even while the server process holds the files open for writing.

Color coding (Error Log):

• Red — ERROR and WARN level messages
• Yellow/amber — INFO level messages
• Grey — DEBUG level messages
• White — unclassified messages

Command-Line Flags

mcaster1win.exe [options]

  -c <file>        Use specified config file (YAML or XML, auto-detected)
  -s               Auto-start the server on launch
  -m               Start minimized to the system tray
  -v               Print version and exit
  -h               Print help text and exit

SSL Generation (exits after generating, no GUI shown):
  --ssl-gencert                     Generate SSL certificate/CSR
  --ssl-gentype=selfsigned|csr      Output type (default: selfsigned)
  --subj="<subject>"               X.509 subject string
  --ssl-gencert-savepath=<dir>     Output directory
  --ssl-gencert-addtoconfig=true    Patch -c config file after generation

Examples

# Launch with specific config, auto-start, minimized to tray
mcaster1win.exe -c "C:\mcaster1\mcaster1dnas.yaml" -s -m

# Generate self-signed cert and patch the config
mcaster1win.exe --ssl-gencert --ssl-gentype=selfsigned ^
    --subj="/C=US/ST=TX/O=My Station/CN=stream.example.com" ^
    --ssl-gencert-savepath="C:\mcaster1\ssl" ^
    --ssl-gencert-addtoconfig=true ^
    -c "C:\mcaster1\mcaster1dnas.yaml"

# Print version
mcaster1win.exe -v

System Tray

Click Hide To Systray (or minimize the window) to hide the GUI to the Windows notification area (system tray). The Mcaster1DNAS icon appears in the tray.

• Left double-click tray icon → restore window
• Right-click tray icon → context menu with Restore option

The server continues running in the background while the window is hidden.

Menu Bar

Window Resizing

The main window is fully resizable. All controls anchor correctly:

Window size and position are saved to the Windows registry on exit and restored on next launch.

Auto-Version Stamping

The window title bar shows the build version at compile time:

Mcaster1DNAS v2.5.1-dev.b73b861 — windows-dev

The commit hash and branch name are embedded by a pre-build PowerShell script that reads git describe --tags --long --always. This happens automatically on every build.

Windows Service

The Windows Service component (mcaster1Service.exe) runs separately from the GUI and uses the console config (mcaster1dnas-console.yaml) on ports 9330/9443. The GUI sidecar runs on ports 9033/9344 so both can coexist.

Service control shortcuts are included in the Start Menu (Start Menu → Mcaster1 → Mcaster1DNAS). Both Start and Stop Service shortcuts trigger UAC elevation automatically.

Building mcaster1win.exe

Prerequisites

1. Visual Studio 2022 (Professional or Community) with:
   • "Desktop development with C++" workload
   • MSVC v143 toolset
   • Windows 10/11 SDK
2. vcpkg with x64-windows packages:

   vcpkg install libxml2 libxslt curl openssl libyaml ogg vorbis theora speex pthreads

3. Set VCPKG_ROOT environment variable to your vcpkg install path

Build

# Build all three projects (GUI + console + service) — Debug x64
cd C:\Users\dstjohn\dev\00_mcaster1.com\mcaster1dnas\windows\installer
powershell -ExecutionPolicy Bypass -File build-installer.ps1 -Config Debug

# OR build just mcaster1win.exe directly
& "C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio\2022\Professional\MSBuild\Current\Bin\MSBuild.exe" `
    windows\Mcaster1Win.vcxproj /p:Configuration=Debug /p:Platform=x64 /t:Build /v:minimal

Or open windows\Mcaster1DNAS.sln in Visual Studio 2022 and press Ctrl+Shift+B.

Output

windows\x64\Debug\mcaster1win.exe       (GUI application)
windows\x64\Debug\mcaster1.exe          (console server)
windows\x64\Debug\mcaster1Service.exe   (Windows Service)

Known Issues and Limitations (Beta)