Nyx for Windows

The three main files in this repo, starter.py, header.py, and tracker.py, can be used to patch and get the pip version of Nyx 2.1.0 (A monitor tool for Tor) to run natively on Windows 11, Windows 10, or Windows 8.

This is done by simply removing the scripts' dependency on the get_uid attribute, and replacing instances of os.uname with platform.uname (Credit: lunaken), in order to run to completion. Not exactly a strategy that expert coders would've used (which I'm probably not), but it works in this case.

Prerequisites

• Python 3 downloaded from https://www.python.org/downloads/ or from Microsoft Store.
• An up-to-date version of pip or pip3 within Python 3.
• (Optional but recommended) Voidtools Everything to quickly find file locations.

My procedure in-so-far as I can remember it

1. In accordance with https://nyx.torproject.org/#download: Open PowerShell and run pip install nyx windows-curses (Credit for recommending windows-curses: Bruno Ranieri)
2. Once it has been installed, run nyx
3. If you encounter an error about not being able to find control_auth_cookie: My understanding is that this can occur if Tor has been placed in C:\Program Files, since Tor on Windows lacks admin rights and will save new files to %LOCALAPPDATA%\VirtualStore instead. This can be fixed by pointing to the file's actual location in torrc with CookieAuthFile ______________\Data\control_auth_cookie
4. If you receive an error about get_uid: Right-click on header.py, choose Save As..., and overwrite the default header.py file. In my case with Python 3.9, it was in %LOCALAPPDATA%\Programs\Python\Python39\Lib\site-packages\nyx\panel\header.py
5. If you receive an error about uname: Right-click on starter.py, choose Save as..., and overwrite the default starter.py file. In my case with Python 3.9, it was in %LOCALAPPDATA%\Programs\Python\Python39\Lib\site-packages\nyx\starter.py
6. If the "Graph / Log" page gets clogged with [NYX_Warning] Event listener raised an uncaught exception (module 'os' has no attribute 'uname'): BW x x every 1-2 seconds: Right-click on tracker.py, choose Save as..., and overwrite the default tracker.py file. In my case with Python 3.9, it was in %LOCALAPPDATA%\Programs\Python\Python39\Lib\site-packages\nyx\tracker.py

Known issues

The setup was initially designed with Python 3.9 in mind. While it does work on later Python versions, some non-critical compatibility bugs are present with Python 3.13.

• 17 June 2025: When launching Nyx in PowerShell 7 in Windows Terminal (as of Terminal's v1.22.11141.0), the colors can look a bit warped. This is worked around by dragging the window in/out slightly each time after launch. The standalone PowerShell 7.5.x program is unaffected.
• 15 June 2025: When using Python 3.13, Nyx is prone to often hang during startup for a multitude of reasons, mostly the first few times Nyx is launched (or is launched after a Tor update). Using nyx --debug [Filepath without these brackets] is recommended when expecting such hangs.
• • Nyx can hang for more than 25 minutes while "PROTOCOLINFO 1" and later "AUTHCHALLENGE SAFECOOKIE" are processed. If only those 2 are processed, then it will however correctly start Nyx. Whether this is specific to Python 3.13 or not is unclear.
• • Nyx can softlock if after initially hung for minutes when processing "PROTOCOLINFO 1" and "AUTHCHALLENGE SAFECOOKIE", it then attempts to process "AUTHENTICATE", and does not seem to progress past there.
• • Nyx can sometimes, but far from always, throw an error soon after startup if it can't find a file called ps.

Fixed

• 15 June 2025: nyx --debug [Filepath without these brackets] would fail in Python 3.13 due to platform.dist in starter.py not being supported in Python 3.13. This was changed to platform.system in a repo update later that day.

Other details

Screenshot of the program in use (with censored parts marked in orange):