Installing AigoPilot on Windows

AigoPilot installs on Windows with a normal installer that puts it in your own user folder. You do not need administrator rights. This page covers getting the file, what the installer does, what Windows may say about it, and how to update or remove the studio.

Partly built. The installer works for the current user, but it is not signed with a code-signing certificate yet, so Windows shows a warning when you open it. The warning is expected, and the next section says how to tell that the file is ours.

Get the installer

When you buy a plan, we email a download link to the address of your account, two days after the purchase. Check the spam folder if it does not come. Your account page at aigopilot.com also shows whether the link has been sent. The file is named like AigoPilot-0.1.0-windows-x64.exe, with the version number in the middle.

Download it from that link only. A copy that came from anywhere else is not ours. Plans and prices are in plans and your account.

Run it

1. Open the downloaded file. If Windows says "Windows protected your PC", read the page about SmartScreen and antivirus warnings first, then continue.
2. On the first page, which names the version, press Next.
3. Follow the pages to the end. The last page has a tick box for a desktop shortcut, ticked by default, and a tick box to run AigoPilot.
4. When the files are in place, the installer asks "Start AigoPilot when you sign in to Windows?". Answer as you like. Yes makes the studio start without a window and wait beside the clock; the setting is also in the studio's own settings, so you can change your answer later.
5. Press Finish. The studio opens, and its first-run setup starts by itself.

What goes where

The programs go into %LOCALAPPDATA%\AigoPilot\. That folder holds aigopilot.exe (the studio, which is also the engine that runs your sessions), a small hook program that the tools call, the PDF reader library, and the uninstaller. The installer adds a Start menu entry, and a desktop shortcut if you ticked it. Your data, meaning the index of your sessions and your settings, lives separately in %APPDATA%\com.aigopilot.studio, and installing never touches it.

On a computer without Microsoft's WebView2 runtime, the installer downloads it. That is the one step that can ask for more rights than yours.

The tray icon and closing the window

Closing the studio's window does not stop it. The studio stays beside the clock, and sessions that are working go on. To stop it completely, right-click the icon beside the clock and choose Quit, or use Quit in the settings. Only one copy runs at a time: starting AigoPilot again brings the running one to the front.

Update over an older version

Run a newer installer and it finds the older copy, offers to remove it first or to install over it, and keeps your data either way. The studio does not update itself yet, so a new studio means a new installer. Be careful with timing: the installer asks to close a running AigoPilot, and closing it stops the engine, and with it any session that is working. Its question knows nothing about sessions, so wait until your sessions are idle. More in updates.

Uninstall

Remove AigoPilot from Windows Settings, in the list of installed programs, or run uninstall.exe from the program folder. It removes the programs, the shortcuts and the start-with-Windows entry. It leaves your data folder alone unless you tick Delete the application data, which is unticked by default.

One limit today: if you let the studio install its hooks into Claude Code's settings, uninstalling does not take them out. With the data folder kept, the leftover hook program does nothing without a studio. So if you remove the studio but keep using Claude Code, leave the data box unticked.

Questions