Deploying on Windows

On Windows, you typically install AI Studio with your software distribution and hand out the metadata of your configuration through group policies:

flowchart LR
    AD["Active Directory"] --> GPO["Group policy<br/>User Configuration › Preferences › Registry"]
    GPO --> REG["HKEY_CURRENT_USER<br/>…\MindWork AI Studio\Enterprise IT"]
    REG --> APP["AI Studio<br/>on each device"]
    APP -- "GET {server}/{id}.zip" --> SRV["Configuration server<br/>in your intranet"]

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Read How Central Configuration Works first if you haven't yet.

Installing AI Studio

Our setup is an NSIS installer, in one version for Intel/AMD (MindWork.AI.Studio_x64-setup.exe) and one for ARM (MindWork.AI.Studio_arm64-setup.exe), both on the release page. By default, it installs AI Studio for the current user below %LOCALAPPDATA%\MindWork AI Studio\, without administrator rights.

• Silent installation: The setup accepts the usual NSIS switch /S. To install into another folder, add /D=<folder> as the last argument, without quotes. Test both with your software distribution before you roll out.
• WebView2: AI Studio displays its interface with the Microsoft Edge WebView2 Runtime, which current Windows 10 and 11 systems include. If it is missing, the setup downloads it. On devices without internet access, deploy the WebView2 Runtime first.
• The folder decides about updates. Our updater runs our regular setup, which always installs below %LOCALAPPDATA%. AI Studio therefore never updates an installation that sits elsewhere:

Where AI Studio is installed	Updates
Below %LOCALAPPDATA%, as the setup does by default	AI Studio updates itself, as configured
Below %ProgramFiles%, %ProgramFiles(x86)%, or %ProgramW6432%	Never; users are told that their IT department provides updates
Any folder with an empty file named managed-installation next to MindWork AI Studio.exe	Never; users are told that their IT department provides updates
In a folder the user can't write to	Never; users are told that their IT department provides updates
Any other folder, such as D:\Tools\MindWork AI Studio	Never; users are asked to install new versions themselves

Use the marker file managed-installation when you roll out our regular per-user setup, for example, through Intune, but want to deliver updates yourself. It applies only to that one installation. A colleague who installed AI Studio from GitHub on the same device keeps getting updates.

To stop AI Studio from checking for updates at all, also in installations that could update themselves, set DataApp.UpdateInterval to DISABLE_UPDATES in your configuration.

Clean up double installations. Older versions could create a second installation below %LOCALAPPDATA% when they updated an installation that sat elsewhere. On such devices, remove %LOCALAPPDATA%\MindWork AI Studio\ together with its uninstall entry below HKEY_CURRENT_USER, and make sure shortcuts point to your installation.

Handing out the metadata with group policies

AI Studio reads the metadata from this registry key:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\github\MindWork AI Studio\Enterprise IT

Create the values with a group policy preference:

1. In the Group Policy Management Editor, open "User Configuration" › "Preferences" › "Windows Settings" › "Registry".
2. Add a "Registry Item" for each value: action "Update", hive HKEY_CURRENT_USER, the key path Software\github\MindWork AI Studio\Enterprise IT, the value name, the type REG_SZ, and the value.
3. To withdraw a configuration later, remove its values. With the option "Remove this item when it is no longer applied", Windows does that for you when the policy no longer applies.

The values:

Value name	Content
config_id_00000	The ID of your first configuration, such as 9072b77d-ca81-40da-be6a-861da525ef7b
config_server_url_00000	The address of its server, such as https://intranet.example.org/ai-studio/configuration
config_id_00001, config_server_url_00001, …	Further configurations, one slot each, up to 99999
config_encryption_secret	The secret for encrypted API keys, if you use them

Keep in mind:

• Only HKEY_CURRENT_USER counts. AI Studio doesn't read HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE or Software\Policies. That's why the values belong into the user part of a group policy.
• Only REG_SZ works. AI Studio skips values of other types and logs a warning.
• Value names are case-sensitive. Write them in lowercase, exactly as shown.
• IDs must be valid GUIDs. A pair with an invalid ID still counts as found in the registry. AI Studio then doesn't look at policy files or environment variables, but ignores the invalid ID, and the device runs without that configuration.
• Users can change values below HKEY_CURRENT_USER. The group policy writes them again at its next refresh. Bear this in mind when you decide what a configuration may grant.
• No restart needed. AI Studio reads the registry again every 16 minutes. A new or removed configuration takes effect in the next cycle after the group policy changed the values.

Each slot is a value of its own, so you can manage each configuration in a policy of its own, for example, one for the whole organization and one per department.

Alternatives to the registry

When the registry holds no complete pair, AI Studio looks for policy files in:

%ProgramData%\MindWorkAI\AI-Studio\

Use the files config_00000.yaml, config_encryption_secret.yaml, and external_http_custom_root_certificates.yaml. Their format is described in Policy files. After that, AI Studio reads environment variables. On Windows, their names are not case-sensitive.

Your own certificate authorities

AI Studio on Windows trusts the certificate authorities of the Windows certificate store. When you roll out your root certificates there, as usual, AI Studio needs nothing else. Otherwise, see Your own certificate authorities.

Where AI Studio keeps its data

What	Folder
Program	%LOCALAPPDATA%\MindWork AI Studio\, unless you installed elsewhere
Data, plugins, and your configurations	%LOCALAPPDATA%\com.github.mindwork-ai.ai-studio\data\
Settings	%APPDATA%\com.github.mindwork-ai.ai-studio\
API keys	The Windows Credential Manager

The "Information" page shows these folders as AI Studio resolved them on the device at hand, the path of the log file, and the state of your configurations.

Where to go next

• Configuration Server
• Deploying on Linux
• Deploying on macOS