Installing Loombre on Windows (installer + tray controller)

Loombre ships as a single unsigned Windows installer. That is a deliberate choice, not an oversight — read on for why, and for exactly how to verify what you are installing is genuinely what the Loombre project built.

Why Windows will warn you before you can run this

Loombre has no Authenticode code-signing certificate. Windows SmartScreen uses code-signing + a reputation service to decide whether to warn you before running a downloaded executable; an unsigned, low-download-count installer will always trigger that warning, regardless of whether the software is safe.

Loombre does not buy a signing certificate for one honest reason: the project takes no revenue and reports no telemetry of any kind (not even anonymous usage counts — see the project's architecture invariants). A code-signing certificate is an annual cost with no funding source behind it, and Windows' reputation system itself is a form of telemetry-driven trust that a zero-phone-home project structurally cannot build up quickly even if it did sign.

Instead, Loombre's trust model is the open-source standard: you verify a cryptographic checksum and signature yourself, rather than delegating that judgment to a certificate authority and Microsoft's reputation graph. See Verify what you downloaded below — treat that step, not the absence of a SmartScreen warning, as your actual trust boundary.

Downloading

One file, from the releases page:

• loombre-<version>-windows-x64.exe

That's the whole Windows download. It installs everything Loombre needs, including the Microsoft Visual C++ runtime if your machine doesn't already have it (most do, in which case you won't notice). Checksums and signatures are in the release's SHA256SUMS and manifest.json, each with a .minisig.

Verify what you downloaded

This is the primary trust ritual for an unsigned build — treat it as mandatory, not optional, especially the first time you install a given release.

1. GitHub artifact attestation (no key handling required)

gh attestation verify .\loombre-<version>-windows-x64.exe --repo Loombre/Loombre

Proves this exact file was built by Loombre's own CI, from this exact repository, at this exact commit. Needs the gh CLI, signed in (gh auth login).

2. Checksum (integrity — did the download complete correctly?)

Download the release's shared SHA256SUMS file (it lists every artifact in the release), then in PowerShell:

Get-FileHash .\loombre-<version>-windows-x64.exe -Algorithm SHA256
Select-String "loombre-<version>-windows-x64.exe" SHA256SUMS

Compare the two hashes byte-for-byte. A mismatch means a corrupted or tampered download — do not run the installer; re-download from a different network path and check again. (There is no per-artifact <file>.sha256 — one signed checksum list covers the whole release.)

A checksum alone only proves the file wasn't corrupted in transit; it does not prove the file came from the Loombre project, since anyone can compute a checksum for a file they tampered with. That's what the next step is for.

3. minisign signature (authenticity — did this actually come from Loombre?)

The signature covers SHA256SUMS itself — not each individual artifact — so verifying it, combined with the checksum match above, transitively proves the .exe is authentic too. Install minisign once (scoop install minisign, or download a release binary from the minisign project), then:

minisign -Vm SHA256SUMS -P <public key — see below>

The public key is published, byte-identical, in multiple independently-maintained places — keys/minisign.pub in the repository, docs/install/linux.md's "Verify what you downloaded" section (which embeds it inline), docs/ops/updating.md's "Verifying releases" section, and every release's notes — so substituting all of them simultaneously would be required to defeat verification.

If those don't agree, or the signature does not verify, stop and do not run the installer — that is exactly the scenario minisign verification exists to catch. This project reports no telemetry, so nobody except you will ever know you hit this — verify anyway.

About the Visual C++ runtime (you don't need to do anything)

The installer handles this — it's documented only so nothing about the install is a mystery.

Two of Loombre's bundled native components import VCRUNTIME140.dll: the PostgreSQL binaries behind Loombre's built-in database, and the addon that stores credentials in Windows Credential Manager. That DLL comes from the Microsoft Visual C++ 2015-2022 Redistributable and is not part of Windows (the Universal CRT half of the runtime is; this piece isn't). Plenty of software installs it, so most machines already have it — but a freshly imaged Windows does not, which is exactly how v0.9.0-rc.1 shipped an installer whose services registered successfully and then died on every start.

The installer now detects it and installs it if absent. If you'd rather install it yourself first:

winget install --id Microsoft.VCRedist.2015+.x64 -e

and to check whether you already have it:

Test-Path "$env:SystemRoot\System32\vcruntime140.dll"

Uninstalling Loombre deliberately leaves the runtime in place — other software on your machine may have come to depend on it.

Installing

1. Double-click loombre-<version>-windows-x64.exe.
2. Windows shows "Windows protected your PC" (SmartScreen). (screenshot coming soon)
3. Click More info. (screenshot coming soon)
4. Click Run anyway.
5. Follow the installer. It installs per-machine, with no custom pages in v1 (a first-run web setup wizard, not this installer, is where you create the admin account and pick library folders — see docs/admin-guide/wizard.md for the full walkthrough).
6. The installer registers three Windows services (Loombre Server, Loombre Web, Loombre Worker), firewall exceptions for the server and web ports, and a tray application (Loombre.Tray.exe). All three services start immediately and on every boot; the tray starts at every logon.
7. On the installer's finish page, click Launch. The Loombre tray icon appears and, once the server finishes its first boot (the database provisions and migrates itself — this can take a minute on first install), your browser opens automatically to the account-setup wizard. If you skipped the Launch button, open http://localhost:3000 yourself, or launch Loombre from the Start menu — it does the same wait-then-open.

Nothing here is different in kind from any other unsigned, legitimately open-source Windows installer (Notepad++, many others) — SmartScreen's warning is a function of signing + download-reputation, not a safety verdict on the software itself.

After install

• The Loombre tray icon (system tray, bottom-right of the taskbar) shows server/worker status at a glance and gives you: Open Loombre (launches your browser to the web client), Start Loombre / Stop server, Shut down Loombre… (stops everything — see Shutting Loombre down completely), Reveal crash files, and the installed version. (screenshot coming soon)
• First launch of the tray or the services may also trigger a SmartScreen prompt (same reasoning as above — click More info → Run anyway again if so).

Configure

Database: nothing to do by default. With DATABASE_URL unset, the server provisions and supervises its own embedded PostgreSQL at boot (data under %ProgramData%\Loombre\postgres\data\), including running migrations — a fresh install is already using it by the time the setup wizard appears.

There is no environment file on Windows. Each service reads its environment from a registry value the installer writes: the Environment value (type REG_MULTI_SZ, one NAME=value per line) under HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\<name>, for LoombreServer, LoombreWorker, and LoombreWeb (installers/windows/msi/Services.wxs documents the exact defaults, including each service's PORT and LOOMBRE_DATA_DIR).

To change a service's configuration — for example, to use your own PostgreSQL 17+ instance instead of the embedded one — edit that value with regedit (or Set-ItemProperty from an elevated PowerShell), e.g. adding a DATABASE_URL=postgres://… line to both the LoombreServer and LoombreWorker values (see docs/ops/external-postgres.md), then restart the services (Restart-Service LoombreServer, LoombreWorker elevated, or services.msc). LOOMBRE_JWT_SECRET can be pinned the same way; left unset, the server generates a secret on first boot and persists it in the local secrets store, so restarts keep every session valid either way.

In external-Postgres mode only, run migrations against that database yourself — embedded mode migrates automatically at boot; external mode never auto-migrates (docs/ops/external-postgres.md covers the how).

Managing the services

Loombre installs as three standard Windows services, manageable the same way as any other:

• services.msc (Start menu → type services.msc → Enter): find Loombre Server, Loombre Web and Loombre Worker, right-click for Start/Stop/ Restart/Properties (startup type, recovery actions). (screenshot coming soon)

• Or PowerShell (run as Administrator):

  Get-Service Loombre*
  Restart-Service LoombreServer
  Stop-Service LoombreWorker

• The tray's Start Loombre / Stop server menu item is the everyday equivalent of the above, normally without an elevated prompt. Stop server goes through Loombre's local control API (a graceful in-band shutdown of the server alone — see packages/controller-ipc if you're curious); Start Loombre starts all three services through the Windows Service Control Manager directly (the installer grants local users start permission on the Loombre services for exactly this). Installs from before that permission existed fall back to a single UAC prompt when you click Start.

Shutting Loombre down completely

The tray's Shut down Loombre… item stops all three services — the worker, the web UI, then the server (which takes its bundled PostgreSQL down with it) — after a confirmation and a single administrator (UAC) prompt, and then closes the tray icon itself. Nothing of Loombre is left running. (Stopping the services is deliberately not granted to non-administrators, unlike starting them — hence the one prompt.)

Two things it deliberately does not do:

• It does not disable Loombre permanently: the services start again the next time Windows boots (they're automatic-start services), and the tray returns at your next sign-in. To bring everything back sooner, open Loombre from the Start Menu and choose Start Loombre.
• It does not uninstall anything — see Uninstalling.

The equivalent from an elevated PowerShell:

Stop-Service LoombreWorker, LoombreWeb, LoombreServer

(Stop server, by contrast, stops only the server process over the local control API — no prompt — and leaves the worker and web services running; it is a quick, reversible pause rather than a full shutdown.)

Data locations

What	Where
Application files	%ProgramFiles%\Loombre\
Application data (embedded database, logs, crash files)	%ProgramData%\Loombre\
— embedded PostgreSQL data	%ProgramData%\Loombre\postgres\data\
— logs	%ProgramData%\Loombre\logs\

%ProgramData% is normally C:\ProgramData — a hidden folder by default; type the path directly into File Explorer's address bar to open it.

Each service also has its own logs\<name>.log set as LOOMBRE_LOG_FILE automatically, so the admin Dashboard's log-tail card shows the server's log in the browser too — no %ProgramData% browsing needed there. See Environment variable reference if you want to point it somewhere else.

Crash reports

Loombre never sends crash data anywhere automatically (no telemetry, ever — this is a hard architecture rule, not a setting). If something crashes, a redacted crash file is written locally under %ProgramData%\Loombre\logs\. Use the tray's Reveal crash files menu item to jump straight to the most recent one in Explorer. Sharing it with anyone (a bug report, a forum post) is entirely your call, every time.

Uninstalling

Settings → Apps → Installed apps → Loombre → Uninstall (or appwiz.cpl on older Windows). This removes the three services, the firewall exceptions, the tray autostart entry, and everything under %ProgramFiles%\Loombre\.

%ProgramData%\Loombre\ (your library metadata, embedded database, and logs) is deliberately left behind — an uninstall should never silently destroy your data. Delete that folder yourself afterward if you want a completely clean removal.

Updating

Re-run a newer loombre-<version>-windows-x64.exe (after verifying it the same way, every time — see Verify what you downloaded). Windows Installer's standard major-upgrade handling replaces the old version cleanly; your data under %ProgramData%\Loombre\ is untouched. Loombre's own admin UI will notify you when a newer signed release manifest is available — it never downloads or applies anything automatically (see packages/release-manifest).

Media on a network share or mapped drive

Loombre's three Windows services run as the built-in LocalSystem account, not as you. That is what lets them keep serving while nobody is signed in — and it has two consequences for library paths:

• Mapped drive letters (Z:) are invisible to the services. A drive mapping belongs to the sign-in session that made it. The folder picker will not list Z:, and typing Z:\Media reports that the drive is not visible to Loombre. Use the share's UNC path instead: \\server\share\Media.
• Shares are reached as this computer's account, not as you. Give read access on the share (and NTFS permissions on the folder) to the computer account (DOMAIN\PCNAME$ on a domain) or to Everyone — or, for a NAS that allows it, enable guest access to that share.

If neither is acceptable, run the services as a user that can reach the share: services.msc → each of Loombre Server, Loombre Worker and Loombre Web → Log On tab → This account, then restart them. That account also needs Full control on %ProgramData%\Loombre (the installer leaves it at Windows' default ACLs: SYSTEM and Administrators full control, Users read).

Local disks and USB drives need nothing: LocalSystem reads every local volume.

Troubleshooting

• "Windows protected your PC" every time you open the tray, not just on first install. Expected while Loombre stays unsigned — see Why Windows will warn you.
• Server won't reach the internet / other devices can't reach it. Check Windows Defender Firewall → the installer adds two inbound rules, Loombre Server and Loombre Web, automatically; confirm both are enabled if you use a third-party firewall product instead of (or alongside) Windows Defender.
• Services show "Starting" and never reach "Running." Check %ProgramData%\Loombre\logs\server.log / worker.log for the underlying Node.js process's own output — the Windows Service wrapper forwards it there verbatim.