Windows installer: custom install location?

[mamift]

is it possible to install orca to a custom directory on Windows? I tried invoking the installer with orca-windows-setup.exe --help but it doesn't seem to accept CLi arguments; it just proceeds to install to the default %localappdata% directory without presenting any options.

custom install location is a common requirement for devs who work on controlled work machines that prevent any apps or executables from running from %userprofile% directories.

[yhay81]

With the current Windows artifact: no — the install directory is not configurable.

This is determined by Orca's checked-in electron-builder configuration, not by an undocumented CLI flag. The current nsis block does not set oneClick: false or allowToChangeInstallationDirectory: true: https://github.com/stablyai/orca/blob/main/config/electron-builder.config.cjs#L200-L209

electron-builder therefore uses its default one-click, per-user NSIS mode. Its directory chooser is only available to an assisted installer, and allowToChangeInstallationDirectory defaults to false: https://www.electron.build/nsis/#allowtochangeinstallationdirectory

There is also an important complication for the controlled-machine case: even if the main app were put elsewhere, current Orca deliberately copies the terminal daemon executable to %LOCALAPPDATA%\Orca\daemon-host\<version> so terminals survive an auto-update. That location is hard-coded in hostRootDir(): https://github.com/stablyai/orca/blob/main/src/main/daemon/daemon-host-relocation.ts#L193-L202

So extracting/moving the installed app would not reliably satisfy a policy that forbids any executable under the user profile; the daemon would still be materialized there. The releases currently provide the Windows setup EXE, not an officially supported portable Windows ZIP.

For Orca to support this requirement cleanly, the project would need both:

1. an assisted/per-machine installer (for example oneClick: false, perMachine: true, allowToChangeInstallationDirectory: true), and
2. a configurable or machine-wide daemon-host location outside %LOCALAPPDATA%.

Until those are implemented, the practical answer for that corporate policy is that the official Windows build is not compatible; this needs an Orca feature/change rather than a different setup command.

[nwparker]

It makes sense to add, I agree