What does NTKDaemon service do?

Just want to report here on my end that NTKDaemon seems unstable. The process often crashes spontaneously (I saw it spontaneous crash in Activity Monitor when I was typing an email) or it doesn't start up at all upon boot. This seems to explain why I'm always asked for my credentials when running Native Access... because the NTKDaemon process wasn't running. I've actually added the NTKDaemon.app to my dock and launch it manually before running Native Access and I have no problem then with Native Access logging in like it should.

NTKDaemon is the primary driver of my non-stop "Native Access Reinstalling Itself" process that occurs here every second day.

NI Support has had me perform all sorts of scans, Visual C++ library replacements and other strange requests - instead of simply reaching out to SF Green and asking why this thing so poorly coded.

You would think that something as important as this service - would you know - work?

VP

Here's an NTKDaemon.exe crash dump, hot off the press (April 1). Forward it to support, if you will. Windows 11 Pro 64 Installation. This crashes every time I reboot the computer.

It's good to know you're working on it. In the meantime, though, is it OK if the Daemon service is set to manual start, to be launched when needed? If so, should it be running every time a NI plugin is in use, or only for update checks and installs?

I don't think it's suspicious (unless you're using that word in a different way than usual), because I don't believe it's doing anything nefarious, but it is odd. I have the same question about why it needs to be always running.

I've written applications which required long running daemons and used others. The description of what NTKDaemon does (from the dev thread) does not match the requirements for a long running daemon.

I didn't have it as a login item – the recommended fix for having to enter the user password on starting Native Access after a reboot, which also occurs if I manually terminate NTKDaemon from Activity Monitor – and don't want it as one.

I've set up an Alfred workflow – because that's the kind of thing I do a lot, for all sorts of actions, and I wanted to experiment with NA's NTK Daemon dependency to see if it really needs to be running when NA is not active – to start NTKDaemon and then NA. And terminate both when I'm done. I've yet to notice any negative effects of the daemon running only when NA is active. There was some weirdness with NTKDaemon being slow to start from an Alfred app launcher action (other apps are quick, including NA) vs. starting it manually by running the app from Finder, but I got around that by directly running the executable inside the app package in the workflow instead. I'd love to know why the app itself is slow to start from the Alfred app launcher when it's fast when started in other ways, but as long as it's quick to start from within NA (evidence indicates it may not be but I can't be sure, given the statement in another thread that it is reinstalling, not just starting) I don't expect NA to help figure out how it works in an Alfred workflow, and I have a working alternative solution.

I understand the need to decouple actions like installation from the UI. But given the purpose and use of NTKDaemon, I can't see a good reason it needs to be running except when NA is active.

It's also odd that the action when NTKDaemon is found not running is 'reinstall it' and not 'look for it where we expect it to be installed, start it if it's there, only install it if it isn't there'. This could be an oversight, and hopefully the latter is where they're going to end up.

This is what I meant with “suspicious”: if it’s not needed, why making it constantly running? Is there some other (hidden) reason?

But I understand by saying this I fall into the “conspiracy” territory.

But…you know…being the earth flat, everything can “fall” 😂😂😂