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Getting Started on Windows

How to install Terminal Project Dashboard and Claude Code on any Windows PC, from download to your first request. It takes less than 5 minutes, and you do it once.
3-minute video walkthrough. The numbered steps below match the step labels in the video.

What you need

Part 1: Install the dashboard
1

Download the installer

Go to terminal-manager.com and click Download for Windows. If it asks for your email, you can click No thanks, just download.

Your browser may warn that the file "isn't commonly downloaded." That's normal for a new program. To keep it:

  1. Hover over the warning and click the ⋯ (three dots).
  2. Click Keep. If it asks again, click Show more → Keep anyway.
2

Install the dashboard

Open the downloaded file. If Windows shows a blue box saying it protected your PC, click More info, then Run anyway.

It installs in a few seconds, puts a Terminal Project Dashboard icon on your desktop and opens the dashboard. No administrator password is needed. If it asks "Set up project memory for Claude?", click Yes.

Project memory lets Claude remember each project between visits, so you can come back days later and carry on.
3

Choose your projects folder

Click Choose Project Folder (or + New Project, which asks for the folder first). Go to Documents, click New folder, name it my-projects, select it and click Select Folder.

Every project you make will live inside this folder.

4

Create your first project

Click + New Project, type a name (for example my-recipe-site) and click Create. A new tile appears.

Part 2: Install Claude Code (one time only)
5

Install Claude Code

Click the Launch button on your new tile. If Claude Code isn't installed yet, a box appears titled "One more step — install Claude Code."

  1. Click the Copy button in that box. This is the line it copies:
    irm https://claude.ai/install.ps1 | iex
  2. Press the Windows key, type powershell and press Enter.
  3. Right-click inside the PowerShell window to paste, then press Enter.
  4. Wait about a minute until it says the install is complete. Then close PowerShell.
The dashboard organises your projects. The AI itself, Claude Code, is a separate program, so it gets installed once.
6

Launch Claude

Close the dashboard with the ✕ in its top-right corner, open it again from the desktop icon, and click Launch.

A black terminal window opens with Claude starting up.

If the "install Claude Code" box keeps coming back

On some PCs the Claude installer finishes but doesn't tell Windows where it put the program. To fix it, open PowerShell again, paste this line and press Enter:

$b="$env:USERPROFILE\.local\bin"; if (Test-Path "$b\claude.exe") { $p=[Environment]::GetEnvironmentVariable('Path','User'); if ($p -notlike "*$b*") { [Environment]::SetEnvironmentVariable('Path',"$p;$b",'User'); 'FIXED' } else { 'ALREADY SET' } } else { 'NOT FOUND' }

When it prints FIXED, close and reopen the dashboard, then click Launch. If it prints NOT FOUND, run the install line from step 5 again.

7

Sign in

  1. Press Enter to accept each setup question, such as the colour style.
  2. When it asks how to sign in, choose Claude account with subscription.
  3. A browser page opens. Click Authorize, then go back to the black window and press Enter.
  4. If it asks "Do you trust the files in this folder?", choose Yes.

You only sign in once on each computer.

Part 3: Use it
8

Ask for anything

Type what you want, the way you'd write a text message, and press Enter. For example:

Make me a simple web page with my three favorite recipes, and open it in my browser

Claude asks before it creates files or runs anything. Press Enter to say yes.

Coming back to a project later

Open the dashboard, click Launch on the project, and type where were we?. Claude reads its notes and tells you what was done and what comes next.

On a Mac

Download the Mac version from the same page, open the .dmg file and drag the app into Applications. It opens without warnings. For step 7, open the Terminal app instead of PowerShell and paste the line the dashboard's install box shows you.

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Terminal Project Dashboard is made by Impera Business Services. Claude and Claude Code are products of Anthropic; this project is not affiliated with Anthropic. Legal & disclaimer