Windows Installer

Weir ships a Velopack-based Windows package. It installs as a desktop app with a .NET system tray host and supports automatic delta updates.

Installation

1. Download the setup exe from GitHub Releases
2. Run the installer (no admin required)
3. Launch Weir from the Start Menu or desktop shortcut
4. The first time Weir starts, it asks which port to use (see Choosing the port)

What gets installed

Relative paths below are inside the application folder.

Component	Location
Application folder	%LocalAppData%\Weir\current
Tray app (the main program)	Weir.exe
Weir server	server\WeirServer.exe
Web UI	server\web-dist
Bundled ffmpeg	server\bin\ffmpeg
Bundled mkvmerge (MKVToolNix)	server\bin\mkvtoolnix
Runtime data (SQLite, logs, backups)	C:\ProgramData\Weir
Saved port	C:\ProgramData\Weir\port.txt

How it runs

Weir runs in the user session, not as a Windows service. This avoids common NAS or external-drive access issues that affect Windows services.

The tray app (Weir.exe) starts the Weir server (server\WeirServer.exe, a self-contained .NET program) as a child process with --port <port>, listening for this PC only unless LAN access is on. It watches the server and restarts it if it stops unexpectedly. The server creates or updates its SQLite database itself when it starts.

The tray icon carries a dot in its bottom-right corner that shows the health of Weir and of what it is set up to talk to: green when Weir is running and everything answers, amber when it is running but a connected media manager such as Deluno, or a workflow's watched, work or output folder, does not answer, red when Weir has stopped or keeps failing to start, and blinking while it starts. The dot never reflects files or downloads. Two extra marks sit in the opposite corner: two bars while processing is paused, and a blue arrow when a downloaded update is waiting; the bars show when both apply. Hover over the icon for the state in words; when the dot is amber or red, it says what is wrong. The menu follows the tray standard Weir and Deluno share (docs/tray-standard.md in the repository):

• Open Weir — opens the web UI in your browser (so does clicking the icon); below it, a greyed line with the state
• Pause processing / Resume processing — stops or restarts new processing work
• Restart Weir — stops the server cleanly and starts it again on the same port; also the way back if Weir stopped and could not start again by itself
• Copy address — copies the address to open Weir (the PC's name when other devices are allowed in)
• Allow other devices on your network... and Only allow this PC — see Firewall and LAN access
• Change port — moves Weir to a different port and restarts it (the current port is shown in the menu); a notice offers the new address to open
• Open data folder and Open logs folder
• Start with Windows — a tick you can switch at any time; see Starting with Windows
• Check for updates — checks GitHub for a newer release; once one is found the item becomes Download update, then Restart to update; below it, the greyed version
• Report a problem... — opens the logs folder
• Quit Weir — stops Weir after running jobs finish, and applies an update that has already downloaded

Every stop the tray does itself (Quit, Restart Weir, Change port, the LAN access items and Restart to update) asks the server to shut down and waits up to 10 seconds, so running work and the database close in order. Only a server that does not exit in that time is ended by force. tray-host.log in C:\ProgramData\Weir says which happened: stopped cleanly in 0.3 s, or did not stop in 10.0 s; killing it.

Updates

The tray app installs updates itself, using Velopack:

• Delta updates keep downloads small
• No admin privileges required for updates
• System › About shows the running version, the latest release and its release notes, and has the Update mode setting: Auto, Download only or Notify only. Auto is the default.
• Weir starts again after an update without opening your browser, so an update never leaves a window behind on a computer nobody is watching. Starting Weir yourself shows a notice from the tray icon instead, and clicking it opens Weir. No start ever opens a browser window by itself.

Firewall and LAN access

Out of the box, Weir listens on this PC only (127.0.0.1 and [::1]). Nothing else on your network can even connect until you allow it. To let other devices on your network — a phone, another computer, Deluno on a different machine — reach it at http://<computer-name>:9347/, turn LAN access on. Windows Firewall still has the last word on whether they get through.

LAN access is one saved choice, kept in the data folder (C:\ProgramData\Weir\lan-access). It turns on when:

• you say yes to the question Weir asks once, the first time it starts after installing (not on a --silent install, which skips it — see below): "Allow Weir on your network?", with a single Windows admin (UAC) prompt;
• you choose Allow other devices on your network... from the tray icon and approve the same admin prompt;
• an admin chooses Devices on my network on System › About, which asks you to confirm and then raises the same admin prompt on this PC;
• a program runs Weir.exe --allow-lan (see Unattended installs).

Saying yes creates one inbound firewall rule named Weir, scoped to the installed server (server\WeirServer.exe) and every network profile (Domain, Private and Public), because Windows often marks a home network Public. Weir is still behind its own sign-in. A rule from an earlier version that covers only Private and Domain is replaced by this one the next time you allow it. The same step also removes any block rule Windows itself created earlier for that program, for example one left behind if its own "blocked some features" prompt was cancelled or never seen. Declining leaves nothing changed, and Weir does not ask again automatically.

Changing LAN access restarts Weir, and the tray says so when it is done. Only allow this PC in the tray menu, or This PC only on System › About, turns LAN access off again: Weir restarts listening for this PC only. It leaves the firewall rule where it is, because with nothing listening for the network the rule lets nothing in, and removing it would need another admin prompt. Uninstalling Weir removes the rule when the uninstaller runs as administrator.

Updating from an earlier version. The first time a version with this setting starts, it keeps things as they were: if Windows already allows Weir's server in (Weir's own Weir rule, or an allow rule Windows made when someone clicked Allow on its own prompt), LAN access starts on, so devices that reach Weir today still do. Otherwise it starts off. Weir saves that answer and does not work it out again.

System › About shows the current state and lets an admin change it, with This PC only and Devices on my network side by side and one line under them:

What it says	What it means
This PC only	LAN access is off. Choose Devices on my network to change it.
Reachable from your network: http://192.0.2.10:9347	LAN access is on and Windows Firewall lets the network you are on through. The address is what another device types; Copy copies it. Choose This PC only to turn it off.
Waiting for approval on your PC's name	You chose Devices on my network and Windows Firewall has no rule for Weir yet. Approve the Windows admin prompt on that PC. Weir restarts once you do.
Blocked by Windows Firewall	LAN access is on, but a block rule exists, or the allow rule is missing, disabled, or does not cover the network you are on (for example a rule from an earlier version that skips Public), or the admin prompt was declined. Try again asks Windows once more, and the new rule covers every network.

Choosing Devices on my network asks you to confirm first, because other devices on your network will be able to reach Weir's sign-in page. Only an admin can change it, and each change is recorded in Activity.

The setting only works on the Windows package. Docker and a bare source install decide who can reach Weir with how they are started, so System › About says what decides it there and offers no choice. Docker and Linux are unchanged: the server listens on every interface inside the container or host, and you publish the port as usual.

Unattended installs

A silent install (Weir-win-Setup.exe --silent, see below) never shows the admin prompt, and the Weir it starts listens on this PC only. A program driving Weir unattended that also wants LAN access should pass --allow-lan to the installed Weir.exe:

"%LocalAppData%\Weir\current\Weir.exe" --allow-lan

--allow-lan means "reachable on the LAN". It always turns LAN access on, with no prompt of any kind, and a Weir that is already running restarts within a few seconds to listen for the network. When the process calling it is already elevated it also creates the firewall rule. It never tries to elevate itself, because a caller driving Weir unattended must never be handed a UAC prompt nobody is there to answer. If the process is not elevated, LAN access is still turned on and the exit code is still 0, and tray-host.log says the rule was not created: until it exists, Windows Firewall decides whether other devices get through, and System › About shows "Windows Firewall is blocking other devices". Weir.exe --configure-firewall and --remove-firewall do only the rule (add/update, and remove). They need an already-elevated process, they are what the tray menu and the first-run prompt run themselves after their own UAC prompt, and they do not change LAN access.

Choosing the port

The port is the number at the end of Weir's web address: with the default, Weir is at http://localhost:9347/ on the same computer, or http://<computer-name>:9347/ from elsewhere on your network. Weir's default is 9347 — it spells W-E-I-R on a phone keypad, and nothing else in a typical media stack uses it.

Service	Default port	Scope
Main server	9347	This PC only until LAN access is on, then every interface (0.0.0.0)

On a desktop: Weir asks once

The installer (Weir-win-Setup.exe, built with Velopack) has no pages of its own to ask questions on, so the tray asks instead, the first time it starts:

• Use Weir's default port, 9347, or Use this port and type your own.
• If another program on the computer already uses 9347, the window says so, and fills in the first free port above it.
• It will not accept a port that is not a whole number from 1 to 65535, or one another program is already using.
• Quit closes Weir without starting it; it asks again next time.

Your choice is saved in C:\ProgramData\Weir\port.txt and used on every start after that. Weir never moves to a different port on its own: if the saved port is busy on a later start, it tells you which port is busy and asks again. To move Weir later, use Change port in the tray menu; Weir restarts on the new port and offers the new address in a notice; clicking the notice opens it. If the server cannot start on the new port, Weir goes back to the old one and says so.

Installing Weir from another program

A program driving Weir unattended — another installer, a provisioning script, a VM image builder — must never run Weir-win-Setup.exe plain, even with -- --port <number> after it. Without --silent, Setup shows its own install progress and then launches Weir, both of which assume a person is at the interactive desktop; run with no one there to see or answer them, Setup can sit running indefinitely with no window and no way to tell it is stuck (#779). Always pass --silent:

Weir-win-Setup.exe --silent

--silent hides every Setup dialog and prompt. Because Velopack's own post-install launch also assumes an interactive session, --silent skips it too — so -- <args> after --silent reaches nothing and should not be used. Setup then exits on its own within seconds: 0 on success, non-zero on failure. Nothing here waits on Weir itself, so there is no risk of Setup hanging on a long-running app. --installto <dir> overrides the install directory if you need one other than the per-user default (%LocalAppData%\Weir).

Setup stops a Weir that is running before it installs. When Weir was running, a silent install starts it again once Setup has exited, on the same port and with no browser window, so an update never leaves it stopped; when it was not running, it stays stopped. A program that starts Weir itself afterwards, as below, is still right: that second start does nothing.

Weir is a foreground desktop app, not a Windows service (see "How it runs" above): once started it keeps running, the same as it does for a person at a desktop. After a silent install, start it explicitly and treat it as up once its own health endpoint answers — not once the process exits, it is not supposed to:

"%LocalAppData%\Weir\current\Weir.exe" --port 9400 --silent

--silent on Weir.exe itself (a separate flag from Setup's own --silent) guarantees no UI at all for this start — no first-run port dialog, no error message box, no browser tab — even if Weir cannot tell whether the session is interactive. --port is honoured immediately, saved, and reused on every later start; WEIR_PORT works the same way if your program would rather set an environment variable than pass an argument:

setx WEIR_PORT 9400

--port wins over WEIR_PORT, and both win over the saved port. A supplied port is honoured even if another program has it at that moment; the server then fails to start and says why in the log, rather than Weir quietly picking another.

A silent install never shows the firewall admin prompt either, and without --allow-lan the Weir it starts is local-only: it listens on this PC (127.0.0.1 and [::1]) and nothing else. If other devices on the network need to reach this Weir, run the installed Weir.exe --allow-lan afterward (see above). It turns LAN access on without prompting, and also creates the firewall rule when the caller is already elevated; it never elevates itself.

Poll GET http://127.0.0.1:<port>/ready until it answers {"ready": true}; a healthy start typically answers within a few seconds, so a 60-second timeout is generous. If Weir.exe exits before that, the start failed — its exit code is non-zero — and tray-host.log under the runtime home (C:\ProgramData\Weir by default) says why.

Don't wait on the process tree. Weir keeps running after Setup exits, by design — that is success, not a hang — so wait for Setup's own exit, then poll /ready or /health; never treat "every process this started has exited" or "its output stream closed" as the signal. That second case matters if you capture a launched process's output: redirecting stdout/stderr through pipes (the ordinary way — Process.StandardOutput/StandardError in .NET, subprocess.communicate() in Python, and similar elsewhere) only reaches end-of-file once every process holding a duplicate of the write end has closed it, including whatever that process goes on to start. Weir.exe closes any stdio handles it inherited before doing anything else, so it — and WeirServer.exe, which it starts — never keep a caller's pipes open (#779).

If nothing is supplied and there is no desktop — a WinRM or SSH session, a scheduled task with no logged-on user, a service — Weir never shows a window even without --silent. It uses 9347, or the first free port above it if 9347 is taken, saves that, and records which port it chose and why in tray-host.log. If a saved port is busy on a later start with no desktop, Weir does not move and does not start; the log says which port is busy and how to choose another. Passing --silent removes any dependence on that detection being right, so a program driving Weir unattended should still pass it.

Starting with Windows

Weir does not start with Windows until you say so. The first time Weir starts it asks "Start Weir when you sign in to Windows?"; a silent install (--silent) never asks and leaves it off. Versions up to 1.0.0-rc.10 registered it at install without asking. If Weir finds such an entry and no answer has been recorded (an answer is recorded when you answer the question or tick or untick the menu item), it asks once, after its icon is up, the next time you start Weir yourself (not at sign-in, not during a silent start): Yes keeps the entry, No removes it. The Start with Windows tick in the tray menu shows the current choice and switches it at any time. When it is on, Weir has a Weir entry under HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run. That start passes --no-browser, so signing in doesn't open a browser window. If there is a Weir.lnk shortcut in your Startup folder, turning it on removes it so there is only one startup entry. An update keeps an entry that is there pointing at the new version, and never adds one. Uninstalling removes it.

Uninstalling leaves the runtime data in C:\ProgramData\Weir in place.