To Paris Installation Guide 2026 Edition

Getting To Paris Working on Your Machine

The 2026 edition changed how the installer handles dependency resolution, which is probably why you're reading this instead of just double-clicking the .msi file and walking away. I spent about four hours last month wrestling with a clean Windows 11 install where the old methods didn't apply anymore. Here's what actually worked. The download is roughly 1.2 GB and comes as a self-extracting installer. Unlike previous editions, it no longer bundles its own redistributables — everything needs to already be on your system or pulled from Microsoft's servers at install time. If you're running a stripped-down OS build or a corporate image that's been tightened up, this is going to bite you unless you prep beforehand. The three packages you absolutely need before running the installer: .NET Desktop Runtime 8.0, Visual C++ 2015-2022 Redistributable (x64), and DirectX End-User Runtime. Get them all first. Don't attempt a live troubleshooting run — the error messages in this version are vague enough to waste an afternoon on.

Run the installer as administrator even if your account already has admin rights. The UAC prompt matters here because the installer writes to HKLM keys during registration, and standard elevation doesn't always catch those. I learned this the hard way when version 2026.1 started silently failing on license registration. The app would launch, show the dashboard, and then immediately exit without saving preferences. Turned out the installer had written to the wrong hive. Re-ran with proper elevation and it cleared up immediately. During installation you'll be asked whether to install the optional companion tools — the command-line utility and the API bridge. The CLI tool is worth it if you're doing anything automated. The API bridge is unnecessary for most users and adds about 40 MB to your footprint with no visible benefit unless you're building custom integrations. I leave it unchecked every time. Post-install, the first launch takes longer than it should. You'll see a progress bar that stalls around 70 percent for maybe thirty to forty-five seconds. This is normal — it's building the runtime cache on first execution. Do not kill the process. I've seen people force-close it three or four times thinking it froze, then complain it never works afterward. Just wait it out.

What the Docs Don't Tell You

The installation guide assumes you're running a stock Windows environment. It doesn't cover VMs with nested virtualization enabled, which some people use for sandboxed testing. If you're in that situation, disable nested virt before installing. The application checks for hardware-assisted virtualization at startup and enters a degraded compatibility mode if it detects it, which means half the features won't function and you'll get cryptic log entries that don't mean anything without context. Another thing: the default install path is now C:\Program Files\ToParis by choice of the developers, but they've added a registry switch to redirect it. If your C drive is small or you're on a system where program files live on a different volume, set the INSTALLDIR environment variable before running the installer. It'll pick it up. Without it, you're stuck with the default and can't move it afterward without breaking updates. Updates this edition come through Windows Update's optional updates branch now, not through an in-app checker. That means if you have Windows Update forced to "only critical updates" via group policy, you will not receive To Paris updates automatically. You have to manually accept the optional update each time. It shows up in Settings Windows Update > Advanced Options > Optional Updates under the name "To Paris Platform Update." The version number in the update matches the main application version, so you can verify it's the right one before installing.

The biggest limitation I run into repeatedly: the 2026 edition dropped support for offline mode on machines that were never activated through an online connection during initial setup. If your workflow requires installing on air-gapped systems and never going online, you need to request an offline activation key from support before deploying. The standard installer won't work without that key on machines that can't reach the license server at least once. This wasn't an issue in the 2024 release, and it's not documented anywhere prominent. I found out after deploying to twelve machines and having four fail at the license screen with no error code beyond "0x8004". There's also the disk space question. The installer reports a minimum of 4 GB free, but that's only for the core application. Once it builds caches, downloads model weights (if you're using the ML features), and stores local configuration across a few weeks of use, you're looking at closer to 8-10 GB. I'd recommend allocating 12 GB to be safe, especially if you're running the companion diagnostic tools which generate verbose logs under certain failure conditions.

Rollback If Things Go Wrong

If the installation corrupts your environment or you need to uninstall cleanly, use the built-in cleanup utility located at C:\Program Files\ToParis\tools\cleanup.exe. The standard Windows Programs and Features entry leaves behind registry keys and user data that causes conflicts on reinstallation. The cleanup utility removes those. It also clears the runtime cache, which helps if you're hitting the stalled-first-launch issue on a fresh install. I typically run the cleanup utility before any major version jump, even when the new installer says it can handle upgrades. There have been at least two versions where in-place upgrades silently carried over broken configuration states, and the only reliable fix was a full cleanup plus reinstall. Takes about twenty minutes total instead of the five minutes the upgrade claims it needs.