Windows preview

Windows support is in preview. Use Windows 11 on an x64 or ARM64 computer with at least 16 GB of RAM. A dedicated GPU is not required. Performance and long-recording acceptance testing on both architectures is still pending.

Install the preview

Download the installer for your PC. Check Settings → System → About → System type if you are unsure:

• Intel or AMD (x64)
• ARM64

Run the downloaded -setup.exe. Installation is for your Windows account and includes WebView2. No GitHub account is needed.

Unsigned preview

Publisher verification is pending. Windows may show Unknown publisher or a SmartScreen warning. Only continue if you downloaded Loofah from the links above and trust the source. Smart App Control or your organization’s policy may block installation entirely; contact your administrator or wait for a signed release. Do not disable security protection to install the preview.

This is a public preview for user testing. Physical-device coverage, GPU acceleration, long recordings, Bluetooth changes, sleep recovery, mixed-DPI displays, and synced/UNC vaults are still being tested. An ARM virtual-machine test previously produced an empty Whisper transcript; try Parakeet and report your model and hardware if this happens.

Loofah checks for updates in the app. Updates are cryptographically verified even while Windows publisher signing is pending. Future publisher-signed releases will use the same app and vault. Checksums are available beside each installer on the release page.

The public preview installs as Loofah. CI staging builds remain separate, with their own settings, default vault, and loof-staging CLI. Back up an existing vault before trying preview software; Windows and macOS share the same vault format.

Recording and speech models

Enable Microphone access and Let desktop apps access your microphone in Windows Settings → Privacy & security → Microphone. Loofah’s permission screen links to these settings. System audio records the default Windows playback device through WASAPI loopback; no virtual audio driver is needed.

If no microphone is connected, you can skip permissions during onboarding and use notes and imported recordings. Connect a microphone and enable access before starting a new recording.

Recording follows changes to the default microphone and playback device. If a device disconnects, Loofah retries it while preserving the other audio source. It reopens both sources after the PC wakes from sleep. A recovery message appears while a source is unavailable.

Download speech models in Settings → Transcription before going offline:

• The streaming Parakeet model provides live English transcription.
• The batch Parakeet model transcribes recordings and imports in the supported 25 European languages.
• Whisper Base, Base English, Small, Small English, Large Turbo, and Large V3 support live and batch transcription. Whisper uses Vulkan when available and falls back to CPU.
• Speaker detection downloads automatically alongside speech models and adds labels after transcription. Batch transcription still works if that download is missing or fails; its status and retry control are shown in Settings. Live speaker detection is unavailable.

Windows runs Parakeet and speaker detection locally on the CPU. Nemotron 3.5 and Omnilingual use Apple-specific runtimes and are unavailable in the Windows preview. Model files are checked against pinned checksums. Existing macOS model selections resolve to the corresponding Windows model when opening a shared vault; the app does not rewrite those selections merely because the platform changed.

AI summaries can use the same local or API-key providers as on macOS. API providers require a network connection.

CLI and MCP

Open Settings → Agents and install the bundled CLI. It lives under %LOCALAPPDATA%\Loofah\cli\ and the app adds its directory to your account’s PATH. Open a new terminal afterwards.

Staging builds install loof-staging; stable builds use loof. For example:

loof --version
loof --json doctor
loof mcp

Versioned releases also include standalone CLI ZIPs. Keep their DLLs beside loof.exe when moving or distributing it. The executable name selects the staging app’s default vault. Use an absolute executable path when configuring an MCP client that cannot find the command on PATH.

App updates refresh an opted-in CLI. Uninstalling the app removes the managed CLI and its PATH entry when its files are unchanged. Modified files are preserved. Your vault is separate from this cleanup.

Windows behavior

Keyboard shortcuts use Ctrl in place of Command. Standard window buttons support minimize, maximize, and Snap. The floating recording bar and live captions can be moved between displays; use the bar’s gear button to adjust appearance and caption position.

Meeting reminders use Windows notifications. Enable notifications for Loofah in Windows Settings and check Do Not Disturb if reminders are missing. Vault-backed tasks and GitHub tasks remain available.

Report a preview issue

Include your Windows build, processor architecture, audio-device names, whether the app was waking from sleep, the app version, and the selected speech model. Report an issue with reproduction steps. For capture problems, describe which source stopped: microphone, system audio, or both. Avoid attaching private recordings or vault contents to a public issue.