Installing the Unifi wireless AP controller as a service

I have recently started using the Ubiquity wireless access points. They have come very highly recommended by the engineers I work with at Quietly Confident Technology Ltd. The only issue I have is that by default installation of the controller goes to the users profile directory and therefore needs that user to be logged on for it to work.

I needed a way to get it running as a service so it could be auto started on reboot and not require a user to be logged in. I did all of this on a new windows 7 64 bit machine accepting all defaults unless otherwise mentioned. This is all provided as is, I am not saying this will work seamlessly on all machines, use at your own risk...

Most of the info here is stolen from the unifi FAQ HERE but there are a couple of extra bits.

Install Java
The first thing to do is download and install the latest version of Java. The unifi software will do this automatically for you but I had issues starting the service if I used the version of Java that was auto installed.
download from: http://www.java.com/en/download/windows_offline.jsp

Follow the prompts onscreen. Be aware that some java installers try to sneak crap ware onto your PC so make sure to keep your eyes open for "Yes, please install xx, yy and zz" for me.

Install Unifi AP

Once Java is on install the unifi AP controller software

download from: http://www.ubnt.com/download#UniFi:AP
Again, follow the onscreen instructions, it's another next, next, ok, next thing. Do not bother to run the controller when the install finishes. We want to move it around first.

Move it all around

The default install for the unifi software is into the user profile. This helps when doing updates but seems a little none standard to me so to prevent issues at a later date move the folder "c:\users\admin\Ubiquiti UniFi" to "c:\program files".

Install the service

Make sure that the java bin directory to the PATH (Computer > Properties > Advanced > Environment Variables > in the System Variables bit) as by default is isn't in there. On my install "C:\Program Files\Java\jre7\bin" needed adding (is't a ";" separated list).
run cmd as an Administrator, (right click 'Run as administrator')
cd to the location you moved Ubiquiti UniF to earlier ("c:\program files\Ubiquiti UniF")
run the following command "java -jar lib\ace.jar installsvc"
Start the service either by running 'net start "Unifi Controller"' or by going to the services control panel (run > services.msc)

Checkout your skills
Browse to https://<your ip here>:8443 and go through the setup.
This should auto run when the computer is restarted.

I hope someone somewhere finds that handy.