Windows

Install

The Windows installer, Cairn_<version>_x64-setup.exe on the releases page, is for Windows 10 and 11 on x86_64.

It is not signed, so Windows SmartScreen says "Windows protected your PC" when you run it: choose More info, then Run anyway. On a Windows 11 PC where Smart App Control is on, there is no Run anyway: Windows blocks unsigned apps that it does not know, so it can block the installer and Cairn outright.

The installer installs Cairn for your user account, without administrator rights, by default in %LOCALAPPDATA%\Cairn (you can choose another folder). Cairn needs the WebView2 Runtime, which Windows 11 and an up-to-date Windows 10 already have; if it is missing, the installer downloads it from Microsoft.

App data and uninstalling

Cairn keeps its own files (the recent notebooks, plugin approvals and sync state) in %APPDATA%\app.cairn.notes, and the data of its window, such as each notebook's open tabs, in %LOCALAPPDATA%\app.cairn.notes. Uninstalling leaves both unless you tick "Delete the application data", and never touches your notebooks. It also leaves the registry key HKCU\Software\cairn\Cairn, where the installer keeps the install folder, unless you tick that box.

Deleted notes

A deleted note, folder or file goes to the Recycle Bin. Where the Recycle Bin cannot take it, as on a network share, a mapped drive or a USB stick, or when it is larger than the Recycle Bin of its drive takes, it goes to the notebook's .trash folder instead, which File Explorer shows but Cairn's file tree does not. The known limits give the details.

Cairn's log

Cairn writes its log to standard error. The installed cairn.exe is a Windows program without a console, so its log goes nowhere unless you send it to a file. To keep it, close Cairn and start it from PowerShell:

$env:RUST_LOG = "info"
Start-Process "$env:LOCALAPPDATA\Cairn\cairn.exe" -RedirectStandardError "$env:USERPROFILE\cairn-log.txt"

Cairn started this way gets the RUST_LOG setting of that PowerShell window, and writes its log to cairn-log.txt in your user folder until it closes. info is the level Cairn uses when RUST_LOG is not set; debug writes more. If you installed Cairn in another folder, use that folder's cairn.exe.

File names

Windows does not allow some names that other systems do: names with < > : " | ? *, names that end in a dot or a space, and device names such as CON, NUL, COM1 or LPT1, with any extension. A file with such a name from another device does not sync to Windows; Settings, then Sync, lists it under "Files not synced".

The known limits list what works differently on Windows. To build Cairn on Windows, see Build on Windows.