Install on Windows

What to expect the first time you install and run OctoMY on Windows, including the two prompts that look alarming and are not.

The SmartScreen prompt

When you run the installer, Windows will probably show a blue box saying "Windows protected your PC" and refuse to start it until you click More info → Run anyway.

That is expected, and it is honest of Windows to say so: our installer is not code-signed yet. SmartScreen shows this for any installer it has not seen enough of, and an unsigned one never accumulates reputation. Signing is planned; until it lands you will see this prompt on every fresh download.

Before you click through, it is reasonable to check you have what you think you have. Compare the SHA-256 of the file you downloaded against the checksum on the download page:

Get-FileHash -Algorithm SHA256 .\octomy-<version>-x64-setup.exe

If the hash does not match, do not run it — tell us instead.

Where your data lives

The cross-platform reference, including exactly what the upgrade does and does not do to an older directory, is Where your data lives.

After installation, each application keeps its data under your local application data folder:

%LOCALAPPDATA%\OctoMY\OctoMY <application>\

This holds rather more than preferences. It contains your node's hives — the files carrying its key pair, recovery phrase and display name — the address book of peers you have paired with, and the OPAL history and audit databases.

If you are upgrading from a build made before this release, your data is not carried over. Earlier builds stored data under a directory whose name included a ™ character, and depending on exactly when a given file was written a single installation could end up with two directories. That is fixed: there is now one location, and its name is plain ASCII.

The consequence is a clean break rather than a migration. On first run after upgrading, the application starts as if freshly installed and logs a line naming both the new and old paths. Nothing is moved, copied or deleted — the old directory is left exactly as it was, and you can remove it by hand once you are satisfied you do not need it.

Your node's key pair is recoverable from its recovery phrase. Paired peers and history are not, so if either matters to you, note them before upgrading.

Choosing where data is stored

Every application accepts a --base-dir argument to put its data somewhere else:

hub.exe --base-dir D:\octomy-data

Pass it on the command line that starts the application. It must be given at startup — an application that has already resolved its location will not move mid-run, and will say so rather than quietly splitting its data across two places.

If an application does not start

First, run it from a command prompt rather than from the Start menu, so you can see what it says:

cd "C:\Program Files\OctoMY\bin"
hub.exe --version

If that prints a version, the installation is sound and the problem is later in startup. If it prints nothing and returns immediately, capture the output as described in Collect useful logs and send it to us — a process that exits without a message is something we want to see.

Related

• Collect useful logs — before you report anything.
• Build for Windows (MSVC) — if you want to build it yourself rather than install it.