Windows Install

🇬🇧 English · 🇫🇷 Français

Windows install

Hydra runs natively on Windows (64-bit). Tagged releases ship a self-contained zip with just two .exe files — unzip and run. The web UI is embedded in the app, and the config is created for you on first run.

Download

Grab the Windows zip from the Releases page:

• hydra-vX.Y.Z-windows-amd64.zip (Intel/AMD, 64-bit)

A .sha256 sits next to it if you want to verify the download. Inside:

• hydra.exe — the app (web UI + API). This is the only one you run.
• hydra-engine.exe — the Typhon BitTorrent engine. hydra.exe starts it automatically; you never run it yourself.
• README.md — a short version of this page.

Run

1. Unzip both files into a folder you can write to, e.g. C:\Hydra — keep them in the same folder (the app looks for the engine next to itself).
2. Double-click hydra.exe (or run it from a terminal).

That's it. On first run Hydra:

• writes a default.toml and a data\ folder next to the executable,
• generates an API key and a temporary admin password — shown once in the console window, note it down (change it later in the UI or with hydra.exe hash-password),
• starts both the app and the engine.

3. Open the web UI at http://127.0.0.1:8199 and log in as admin with the password from the console.

There is no config to copy and no --config to pass. To change ports or paths later, edit the default.toml it created and restart. (Advanced: you can still pass --config <path> to point at a specific file.)

Under the hood, the app talks to the engine over a TCP loopback socket on 127.0.0.1 — automatic on Windows, nothing to configure. (Linux uses a Unix domain socket instead; same wire protocol.)

Run in the background (as a service)

Running hydra.exe keeps a console window open. To run it unattended and start it on boot, wrap it in a service manager such as NSSM or the built-in sc.exe. With NSSM:

nssm install Hydra "C:\Hydra\hydra.exe"
nssm start Hydra

If the memory watchdog restarts Hydra, the service manager brings it back up.

VPN

Hydra does not manage the VPN on Windows — and it doesn't need to. Use your VPN client's system-wide or per-app binding / kill-switch (Mullvad, AirVPN Eddie, Proton, PIA, etc.). All of Hydra's traffic then egresses through the tunnel like any other app.

The Linux-only per-socket routing (fwmark / SO_MARK, used for the multi-tunnel and gluetun setups) is disabled on Windows by design — see Gluetun (VPN) and Networking Modes for what those are and why they don't apply here.

Notes & limitations

• Windows Firewall may prompt to allow hydra.exe/hydra-engine.exe on first listen. Allow it on your private network for peers to reach you (or set up a port forward if you seed behind NAT).
• Heap profiling (jemalloc) is a Linux-only diagnostic and is absent from the Windows build; the system allocator is used instead. No functional difference for normal use.
• Everything else — categories, the qBittorrent shim, adding torrents, seeding existing data — works the same as on Linux. See the rest of the wiki.

Troubleshooting

• "engine endpoint not ready" on startup: hydra-engine.exe isn't next to hydra.exe, or an antivirus quarantined it. Keep both in the same folder and whitelist them.
• Web UI won't load: check the console for the actual api_port and that nothing else is bound to it; try http://127.0.0.1:<port> explicitly.
• Peers won't connect (inbound): allow the listen port through Windows Firewall and, behind a router, forward it. Outbound-only still seeds to peers that can reach you.

See Troubleshooting for the general guide.