tailscale / tailscale/tailscale

Updating TS resets its Windows service configuration

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#20,581 0 comments 0 reactions 0 assignees View on GitHub
bug
Dominant language
Go
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Description

### What is the issue?

On Windows, updating Tailscale resets/overrides the configuration of the Tailscale service

### Steps to reproduce

1. Install Tailscale
2. Modify its configuration (e.g. change its Windows Service startup mode via `SC CONFIG "tailscale" start=demand`)
3. Update Tailscale by running the installer for the next version (e.g. `winget update -id Tailscale.Tailscale`)
4. Open Services.msc and view the Tailscale service's Properties

### Are there any recent changes that introduced the issue?

No.

### OS

Windows

### OS version

Windows 11

### Tailscale version

1.98.90

### Other software

N/A

### Bug report

N/A

Contributor guide

Open the contributing guide

Research direction

Start by tracing the Windows installer and Tailscale service configuration path used during an update, then reproduce the issue with `SC CONFIG "tailscale" start=demand` and `winget update -id Tailscale.Tailscale`. Done means an update preserves the service startup mode and other existing Windows service configuration.

Written by the indexing model from the issue text.

Assessment

Tech stack
go
Domain
operating-systems
Issue type
Bug
Difficulty
3/5
Estimated time
1-2 days
Activity status
Quiet
Clarity
Mostly clear
Newbie friendliness
57/100

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