Install on Windows

Ringleader ships for Windows as an MSI installer (Ringleader-<version>-amd64.msi). Installing it gives you three things at once:

• the Ringleader app: one window, opened from an icon in your system tray, that runs the local container runtime and boots your workstations.
• the rl CLI (plus the bundled docker, kubectl, kind, and helm tools, and the Docker compose/buildx plugins), added to the machine PATH.
• the Ringleader VM Service, a Windows service that runs the HCS (Host Compute Service) VMs of hcs workstations. The installer adds it whether or not you use hcs.

On Windows, hcs is the default local provider when it registers. It runs each workstation in its own HCS VM. If hcs cannot register and WSL2 does, WSL2 becomes the default. If neither registers, the daemon has no default local provider. Neither needs a separate virtual-machine tool to install or manage.

Requirements

• A 64-bit (x64) PC running Windows 11, or Windows 10 with WSL2 available.
• Hyper-V and Virtual Machine Platform enabled for hcs, the default local provider. Open Turn Windows features on or off, tick both, and restart when Windows asks.
• WSL2 enabled for the fallback provider. If you have never used WSL, run wsl --install from an elevated (Administrator) terminal and reboot when prompted.
• Administrator rights (the installer is per-machine and updates the machine PATH).

Ringleader has tested hcs only on Windows 11 Pro. Run rl status to see which provider your PC can use and why another one cannot run.

You do not need Docker Desktop: Ringleader bundles its own container runtime. If you already use Docker Desktop or Rancher Desktop, Ringleader installs alongside it. The installer adds its tools to the end of the machine PATH, so your existing docker stays the one your terminal runs, and the first-run wizard switches docker to Ringleader’s runtime only if you ask it to.

1. Download the installer

How you download depends on the invitation email you received:

• A Download Ringleader button opens your personal download page. Download Ringleader-<version>-amd64.msi there.
• A Sign in to Ringleader button means you sign in first. Sign in at app.ringleader.dev with that address, using your Google account, open Downloads in the top menu, and download the latest Ringleader-<version>-amd64.msi.

2. Run the installer

Double-click the .msi and follow the steps. Windows will ask for administrator approval to complete the installation.

The installer places the app and the bundled command-line tools and updates the machine PATH. Unlike the macOS installer, there is no separate “installation complete” dialog. When the progress window closes, the install is finished.

What gets installed

The package installs the app and puts the bundled command-line tools on the machine PATH:

The package also installs the Ringleader VM Service. It starts with Windows and runs as the Local System account. For the Windows account that asks, it creates, starts and stops the HCS VMs of hcs workstations, which is why creating one needs no administrator after the install. It acts for no other account. Any account on the PC can ask it, and nothing from another PC can. Windows lists it under Services as Ringleader VM Service, and the app’s Account page shows whether it is running.

Unlike the macOS package there is no lima/limactl. On Windows, hcs runs workstations as HCS VMs when it registers. WSL2 is the fallback when hcs cannot register and WSL2 does.

3. Verify the install

Open a new terminal (so it picks up the updated PATH) and confirm the CLI is available:

rl version

4. Open the app

When you install Ringleader for the first time from the installer’s own window, the Ringleader window opens as the install finishes, so you can go on to step 5.

The window does not open on its own after an upgrade, or after an install a management tool ran silently. The app then starts hidden in the system tray. To bring up the window, click the Ringleader icon in the tray, or open Ringleader from the Start menu.

Each time the app starts, it also starts a background rl daemon, the control loop that boots workstations and forwards the Docker socket.

5. Complete first-run onboarding

The first time it runs, the app shows a short onboarding wizard with four opt-in actions: sign in to Ringleader Cloud, create the local container runtime, set up ssh for workstations, and launch at login. Pick the ones you want, or skip and do them later from Settings.

See Onboarding for a full walkthrough of signing in and bringing up your first workstation.

6. Find the app in the system tray

Ringleader lives in the system tray. Look for the Ringleader mark there. Click it to show or hide the Ringleader window, or right-click it for a menu with Open Ringleader and Quit Ringleader. The window opens on its Workstations page, which lists your workstations with a status for each and per-row start, stop, shell and Open in VS Code buttons. Closing the window hides it and the app keeps running in the tray. The icon shows a dot while something is waiting for you, such as a sign-in awaiting approval.

The window’s pages

The window’s sidebar has seven pages: Workstations, Local runtime, Account, Bundled Tools, Settings, Troubleshoot and About, which shows the installed app and daemon versions. For what each page does, see The app’s pages.

Optional: reach workstations with plain ssh

rl shell is a convenience, not a requirement. The daemon continuously writes a real OpenSSH configuration for your workstations under %USERPROFILE%\.ringleader\ssh\, and keeps it current as workstations come and go. Wire it into your own SSH config once, from PowerShell or any other shell:

rl ssh-config install

From then on ssh my-box, scp, git clone my-box:repo.git, and VS Code / Cursor Remote-SSH all reach your workstations by name, with the host key pinned.

The command adds one Include line at the top of %USERPROFILE%\.ssh\config and leaves the rest of the file alone. What it writes, and how to check or remove it, is in rl ssh-config. Using ssh directly has the host aliases and what each generated block contains.

Three things differ from macOS:

• No connection multiplexing. Win32-OpenSSH does not support ControlMaster, so Ringleader omits it and every ssh invocation performs a full handshake.
• Several ssh.exe may be on your PATH: the Windows OpenSSH optional feature, the one bundled with Git for Windows, and any installed by Scoop or Chocolatey. They read different configuration files. Check which one wins with Get-Command ssh.
• WSL has its own SSH config. The Include above applies to the Windows host. An ssh run inside a WSL distribution reads that distribution’s ~/.ssh/config.

Uninstalling

Remove Ringleader like any other Windows application: Settings → Apps → Installed apps → Ringleader → Uninstall.

Uninstalling stops every hcs workstation on the PC, for every Windows account, and removes the Ringleader VM Service. It leaves two folders in place:

• %ProgramData%\RingleaderVM holds the disks of every account’s hcs workstations and the base disks those disks are layered on. If you install Ringleader again, a workstation that was running starts again on its own disk. A stopped one stays stopped until you start it.
• %USERPROFILE%\.ringleader is your data directory. It holds your workstation records.

To free the disk space before you uninstall, delete your hcs workstations with rl workstation delete <name>, then run rl image delete --unused. It deletes the base disks the Ringleader VM Service keeps for your Windows account, and the downloaded images nothing uses.

To delete every account’s disks after you uninstall, run this in a PowerShell window opened as Administrator:

Remove-Item -Recurse -Force "$env:ProgramData\RingleaderVM"

Remove %USERPROFILE%\.ringleader too if you want nothing of Ringleader left on the PC.