Install WinPanel

Install WinPanel

WinPanel installs from a single .exe on Windows Server 2025 or 2022, or on Windows 11. Nothing has to be installed first — the installer brings its own Node runtime, and the panel downloads the web server, mail server and anything else it needs on demand.

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Before you start

• Windows Server 2025 / 2022, or Windows 11. There is no Server-edition requirement: everything the panel does — services, firewall rules, a registry value, a scheduled task — exists on desktop Windows too. Server is simply where it has the most hours. Windows 10 should behave the same but left support in October 2025; Server 2019 is untested.
• Administrator access on the machine.
• Ports 80 and 443 free. Windows Server enables IIS with a site bound to them by default; the panel detects that and offers to fix it, or see port 443 already in use. On Windows 11 IIS is absent unless you added it, so this rarely comes up.
• A Cloudflare account, optional, if you want managed DNS and automatic certificates for domains that are not pointing here yet.

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Installing

1. Download WinPanel-Setup-x64.exe from the releases page onto the server.
2. Run it. It creates the folders, registers the Windows Service, opens the firewall port and generates a certificate.
3. The last screen shows your panel URL and a one-time setup code.
4. Open the URL — https://<your-server-ip>:8443 — enter the code, and create your account. Two-factor authentication is offered immediately, with printed recovery codes, and can be added later instead.

Each release also publishes a SHA256SUMS.txt if you want to verify the download.

The certificate warning is expected

Your browser will warn the first time. The panel is reached by IP address, and no certificate authority issues certificates for bare IPs, so it starts on a self-signed one. The panel shows you its fingerprint so you can confirm you are trusting the right thing.

To remove the warning permanently, give the panel a name of its own under Settings → Panel address and certificate. Point a subdomain such as panel.example.com at the server, save it, and WinPanel obtains an ordinary certificate for that one name. Do not proxy it through Cloudflare — the name has to resolve to your server for the check to pass.

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Where things live

Path	Contents
C:\WinPanel	The panel, its database, its vault key and its logs
C:\Sites	One folder per website
C:\WinPanel\logs	Panel and update logs

Ports: 8443 for the panel, 80 and 443 for your websites, 7000–7999 for site previews, 3001+ for your apps on loopback only, and the mail ports if you install mail.

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Your first website

Add website, then pick what you are hosting — that choice decides everything after it:

Kind	What happens
A simple website	Creates the folder and a starter page for you to edit or replace
I already have the files	The same, starting empty
From a Git repository	Clones it, works out how to build it, and publishes it
A Node app from scratch	Writes a small working server you can edit in place

The site is reachable immediately at http://<your-server-ip>:<port> on a preview port, with no domain and no DNS. Add the domain whenever you are ready.

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Updating

Settings → Update WinPanel, as the owner account. Three routes, because servers differ: upload the installer from your computer (works even on a server with no internet access), give it an https:// link to fetch, or point it at a file you have already copied across. Paste the release's SHA-256 if you want it verified first.

Websites and email are offline for a minute or two while it runs. It is an upgrade in place — websites, mailboxes, certificates, users and history are all kept — and there is no rollback, so take a copy of C:\WinPanel\data\panel.db and C:\WinPanel\data\vault.key first.

Running the new setup .exe over the top from the server does exactly the same thing, and is the fallback if the panel is too broken to update itself.

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Backing up

At minimum: C:\WinPanel\data\panel.db (everything the panel knows) and C:\WinPanel\data\vault.key (without which the encrypted tokens and passwords in that database are unreadable). Then C:\Sites for the websites themselves, and the mail data folder if you host email.

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Related

• Windows Server hosting for beginners
• Deploy a website from GitHub
• Frequently asked questions