Installing on Windows

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Revision as of 08:58, 16 February 2022 by Roy 043 (talk | contribs) (FileName template)

Standard Installation

The easiest way to install the latest stable version of FreeCAD is by using the installer:

Template:DownloadWindowsStable

After downloading the installer, double-click it to start the installation process.

If you would like to download a development version, which may be unstable, see the Weekly builds download page.

Below is more information about some technical options. But most users don't need more than the installer. Head to Getting started once installation is complete.

Installation for all users of the Windows system

By default FreeCAD will be installed for the user that executes the installer. When this user has only user permissions, the default installation path is:

C:\Users\<username>\AppData\Local\Programs\FreeCAD X.YY

When the installer is executed by an admin user, or you execute it as admin you can choose of FreeCAD should be installed for all users of the system of just for you. The default is for all users.

When installed for all users, the default installation path is:

C:\Program Files\FreeCAD X.YY

Silent Installation

To install FreeCAD silently, you can execute the installer the following way from the command line:

FreeCAD-~.exe /S

Then all choices will be kept with their default settings. To set another installation path than the default, you can specify it the following way:

FreeCAD-~.exe /S /D=A path to FreeCAD with spaces

By default there will also with silent installations be a short popup necessary to check the installer is not corrupted. This so-called cyclic redundancy check only takes few second, depending on your system less than a second. Of you are somehow annoyed by this, you can disable the corruption check by

FreeCAD-~.exe /S /NCRC

Note that the /NCRC flag is not recommended since the corruption check assures that the installer was e.g. completely downloaded.

Chocolatey

However, it is highly recommended that you use a package manager such as Chocolatey to keep your software updated. You can installed Chocolatey following these instructions and then open a PowerShell terminal as admin and run:

choco install freecad

every once in a while you can update your software with

choco upgrade freecad

to get the latest version available on Chocolatey repository. If there are any issues with the chocolatey package, you may contact maintainers on this page.

Uninstallation

To uninstall FreeCAD use preferably the Windows' tools to uninstall software. Alternatively you can execute the uninstaller directly. This is the file:

Uninstall-FreeCAD.exe

you find in the folder where FreeCAD is installed.

The uninstaller can also be executed silently using the command line:

Uninstall-FreeCAD.exe /S

Note: to uninstall, FreeCAD must not be running, also no other version of FreeCAD. So when the silent uninstallation does not work, there is a running instance of FreeCAD.