kaspad on Windows

Download kaspad

Get the official build from the Rusty Kaspa releases page.

1. Open the releases page and take the newest release, marked Latest.
2. Under Assets, download the .zip for Windows.
3. Right-click it, choose Extract All, and leave the folder it makes in Downloads. kaspad.exe is inside.

Install it

Give kaspad a permanent home and add it to your PATH, so it runs from anywhere.

In PowerShell as administrator (right-click Start, Terminal (Admin)):

New-Item -ItemType Directory -Force -Path "C:\Program Files\Kaspad"
Get-ChildItem "$env:USERPROFILE\Downloads\rusty-kaspa-*-win64" -Recurse -Filter kaspad.exe |
  Move-Item -Destination "C:\Program Files\Kaspad\"

Add it to the PATH:

$old = [Environment]::GetEnvironmentVariable('Path', 'Machine')
[Environment]::SetEnvironmentVariable('Path', $old + ';C:\Program Files\Kaspad', 'Machine')

Or by hand: press Win+R, type sysdm.cpl, then Advanced, Environment Variables, Path under System variables, Edit, New, and add C:\Program Files\Kaspad. Close and reopen PowerShell, then check:

kaspad --version

Run it once

Start it by hand first. Problems are much easier to see here than once it runs in the background.

kaspad --utxoindex --appdir=C:\ProgramData\Kaspad

If Windows Firewall asks, choose Allow access for private and public networks.

--utxoindex

Keeps an index for balance lookups (recommended)

--appdir

Keeps the chain in C:\ProgramData\Kaspad

Ctrl+C stops it. Next time it carries on syncing where it stopped.

Keep it running

The simplest way is a file you double-click. For a machine that stays on, run it as a Windows service instead.

Save this in Notepad as start-kaspad.bat, and double-click it to start the node:

@echo off
echo Starting the Kaspa node. Press Ctrl+C to stop.
kaspad --utxoindex --appdir=C:\ProgramData\Kaspad --logdir=C:\ProgramData\Kaspad\logs --rpclisten=127.0.0.1:16110
pause

As a service: download NSSM from nssm.cc, copy nssm.exe from its win64 folder to C:\Windows\System32, then in PowerShell as administrator:

nssm install Kaspad "C:\Program Files\Kaspad\kaspad.exe" --utxoindex --appdir=C:\ProgramData\Kaspad --logdir=C:\ProgramData\Kaspad\logs
nssm set Kaspad Start SERVICE_AUTO_START
nssm start Kaspad
nssm status Kaspad

Day-to-day commands

Everything you'll need once it is running.

Follow the log

Copy

Get-ChildItem C:\ProgramData\Kaspad\logs -Recurse -File |
  Sort-Object LastWriteTime | Select-Object -Last 1 | Get-Content -Tail 50 -Wait

Stop, start, restart

Copy

nssm stop Kaspad
nssm start Kaspad
nssm restart Kaspad

Remove the service

Copy

nssm remove Kaspad confirm

Make it public

Optional, and the most useful thing you can do: a public node helps new nodes join and sync. On a hosted server, opening the firewall is usually enough.

Allow the port in Windows Firewall, in PowerShell as administrator:

netsh advfirewall firewall add rule name="Kaspa Node" dir=in action=allow protocol=TCP localport=16111

At home, kaspad asks your router to open the port by itself (UPnP), which many routers allow. If it doesn't become public, forward the port by hand:

1. Find this machine's local address: ipconfig, the IPv4 Address.
2. Open your router's admin page, usually at 192.168.1.1 or 192.168.0.1.
3. Forward external TCP port 16111 to that address, port 16111.

Router menus differ. portforward.com has steps for most models.

Troubleshooting

The usual problems and what fixes them.