windows.md

# Ollama Windows Preview

Welcome to the Ollama Windows preview.

No more WSL required!

Ollama now runs as a native Windows application, including NVIDIA and AMD Radeon GPU support.
After installing Ollama Windows Preview, Ollama will run in the background and
the `ollama` command line is available in `cmd`, `powershell` or your favorite
terminal application. As usual the Ollama [api](./api.md) will be served on
`http://localhost:11434`.

As this is a preview release, you should expect a few bugs here and there.  If
you run into a problem you can reach out on
[Discord](https://discord.gg/ollama), or file an
[issue](https://github.com/ollama/ollama/issues).
Logs will often be helpful in diagnosing the problem (see
[Troubleshooting](#troubleshooting) below)

## System Requirements

* Windows 10 22H2 or newer, Home or Pro
* NVIDIA 452.39 or newer Drivers if you have an NVIDIA card
* AMD Radeon Driver https://www.amd.com/en/support if you have a Radeon card

## API Access

Here's a quick example showing API access from `powershell`
```powershell
(Invoke-WebRequest -method POST -Body '{"model":"llama3", "prompt":"Why is the sky blue?", "stream": false}' -uri http://localhost:11434/api/generate ).Content | ConvertFrom-json
```

## Troubleshooting

While we're in preview, `OLLAMA_DEBUG` is always enabled, which adds
a "view logs" menu item to the app, and increases logging for the GUI app and
server.

Ollama on Windows stores files in a few different locations.  You can view them in
the explorer window by hitting `<cmd>+R` and type in:
- `explorer %LOCALAPPDATA%\Ollama` contains logs, and downloaded updates
    - *app.log* contains most resent logs from the GUI application
    - *server.log* contains the most recent server logs
    - *upgrade.log* contains log output for upgrades
- `explorer %LOCALAPPDATA%\Programs\Ollama` contains the binaries (The installer adds this to your user PATH)
- `explorer %HOMEPATH%\.ollama` contains models and configuration
- `explorer %TEMP%` contains temporary executable files in one or more `ollama*` directories


## Standalone CLI

The easiest way to install Ollama on Windows is to use the `OllamaSetup.exe`
installer. It installs in your account without requiring Administrator rights.
We update Ollama regularly to support the latest models, and this installer will
help you keep up to date.

If you'd like to install or integrate Ollama as a service, a standalone
`ollama-windows-amd64.zip` zip file is available containing only the Ollama CLI
and GPU library dependencies for Nvidia and AMD. This allows for embedding
Ollama in existing applications, or running it as a system service via `ollama
serve` with tools such as [NSSM](https://nssm.cc/).