Manually Create Automation Server

The Microsoft^® Windows^® operating system automatically creates an Automation server when a client application first establishes a server connection. When the operating system creates a MATLAB^® server, this session is different from other MATLAB sessions. The client application communicates with the server session without interfering with any interactive MATLAB sessions that might be running.

Alternatively, you can specify a currently running MATLAB session as the COM server. In this case, your application has access to data created in the MATLAB session. To create a MATLAB COM server manually, before starting a client process, either call enableservice from the MATLAB command prompt or start MATLAB with the -automation switch. Your client application connects with this running MATLAB.

Create Automation Server at MATLAB Command Prompt

To make MATLAB an Automation server, call the enableservice function:

enableservice('AutomationServer',true)

To determine the current state of a MATLAB Automation server. type:

enableservice('AutomationServer')

If MATLAB displays:

ans =
     1

then MATLAB is currently an Automation server.

Create Automation Server at Startup

To create a MATLAB server at startup, use the matlab -automation startup command.

From the operating system prompt, navigate to the installation folder for the specified MATLAB version and type:

matlab -automation

Add `-automation` Switch to MATLAB Shortcut Icon

To make MATLAB a server every time you run MATLAB, add the -automation switch to the shortcut icon.

Right-click the MATLAB shortcut icon

and select Properties from the context menu. The Properties dialog box for matlab.exe opens to the Shortcut tab.
In the Target field, add -automation to the end of the target path for matlab.exe. Be sure to include a space between the file name and the hyphen. For example:
```
"C:\Program Files\MATLAB\R2016a\bin\win64\MATLAB.exe" -automation
```