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Windows

Windows ships as an unsigned preview. Since 0.3.0 every release carries a PaddleBoard-x86_64-windows-preview.zip, built in CI from the same source as the signed macOS and Linux releases. It is a preview, not a release-grade build, and the differences are listed here so you know what you are taking on before you unzip it.

The honest status

Status
Published release assetUnsigned zip (x86_64), with a SHA-256 beside it
Built in CIYes — the release workflow builds it on every tag
Tested in CINo — the compile and test gates still cover Linux and macOS only
Code-signedNo — SmartScreen warns on first run
InstallerNone — unzip and run
Automatic updatesNot available — download the next zip
Managed Local ModelsNot available
arm64Not yet — build from source

The compile gate does not run on Windows, so Windows-only breakage can still land on main between releases. If something is broken in a preview build, that is genuinely useful information: please open an issue.

Download the preview

  1. Download PaddleBoard-x86_64-windows-preview.zip from the latest release.

  2. Optionally verify it against the .zip.sha256 next to it:

    (Get-FileHash .\PaddleBoard-x86_64-windows-preview.zip -Algorithm SHA256).Hash

  3. Unzip it anywhere and run PaddleBoard.exe.

  4. SmartScreen will warn that the publisher is unknown, because the build is not signed. Click More info, then Run anyway. You only see this once per download.

bin\paddleboard.exe is the command-line launcher. Add bin\ to your PATH to use paddleboard <path> from a terminal. README-PREVIEW.txt in the zip repeats the limits on this page.

Known issues

  • The window cannot be dragged by its title bar (#87). Resize and maximise work; moving the window does not. This is the top Windows bug.
  • Everything under What won’t work below.

Build from source

Prerequisites:

  • Rust, via rustup
  • Visual Studio with the C++ toolchain
  • the Windows SDK
  • cmake

Then:

cargo run --release

script/bundle-windows-preview.ps1 produces the same zip that CI publishes. The inherited script/bundle-windows.ps1 (installer, code signing) is Zed’s and is not used by PaddleBoard.

What won’t work

Two PaddleBoard features are unavailable on Windows, and both fail as absence rather than as an error — the surfaces simply won’t offer you anything.

Automatic updates

The updater’s Windows path expects an installer, and the preview is a zip, so no update is ever offered. “Check for Updates” cannot find a build for you. Update by downloading the next release’s zip.

Managed Local Models

The bundled llama.cpp runtime ships for macOS (Apple silicon) and Linux (x86_64 and aarch64) only. On Windows the Local Models section has nothing to offer, and PaddleBoard reports the platform as unsupported rather than downloading a runtime that can’t run.

Everything else in the AI stack is platform-independent — bring your own API keys, or point PaddleBoard at any OpenAI-compatible endpoint, including one you run yourself on the same machine.

Troubleshooting

PaddleBoard links here from two Windows failures.

Could not start ReadDirectoryChangesW

PaddleBoard watches project files with ReadDirectoryChangesW, which network filesystems and WSL paths do not reliably support. Opening a project from a UNC share, a mapped network drive, or a \\wsl$\... path can fail at startup with ReadDirectoryChangesW initialization failed.

Open the project from a local NTFS path instead. If the files genuinely live in WSL, run the Linux build inside WSL rather than reaching into WSL from Windows — see below.

Software-emulated graphics

PaddleBoard renders through DirectX on Windows. Without a usable GPU driver the system falls back to software emulation, which is too slow to edit in, so PaddleBoard warns instead of letting it look like an unexplained stutter.

Install your GPU vendor’s driver. To proceed on software rendering anyway — a VM, or a remote session — set:

$env:PADDLEBOARD_ALLOW_EMULATED_GPU=1

Logs live in %LOCALAPPDATA%\PaddleBoard\logs.

WSL

If you want automatic updates and local models on Windows hardware today, WSL2 is the path: install the Linux build inside WSL and run it there, where releases, automatic updates, and local models all work normally. See Linux.

Roadmap

From preview to release means three things: code signing so SmartScreen stays quiet, an installer so updates can be automatic, and Windows in the compile gate so breakage is caught before a tag. None has a date. If Windows support matters to you, say so on the issue tracker; demand is what moves it up the list.