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Windows User Guide for Beyond Better (BB)

This guide provides detailed instructions for installing and using Beyond Better (BB) on Windows systems.

Table of Contents

  1. System Requirements
  2. Installation
  3. First Launch
  4. Using BB
  5. Troubleshooting

System Requirements

  • Windows 10 or later
  • At least 4GB of RAM (8GB or more recommended)
  • 1GB of free disk space
  • Internet connection

Installation

  1. Download the appropriate installer from the BB Releases page:
    • Recommended: BB-dui-{version}-windows-x64.msi (MSI installer)
    • Alternative: BB-dui-{version}-windows-x64-setup.exe (NSIS installer)
  2. Double-click the downloaded file to run the installer
  3. If you see a User Account Control (UAC) prompt, click 'Yes' to allow installation
  4. Follow the installation wizard to complete the installation

First Launch

When launching BB for the first time, you may see security warnings because the application is currently unsigned:

  1. SmartScreen Warning:

    • You'll see a message "Windows protected your PC"
    • Click 'More info'
    • Click 'Run anyway'
    • This security approval is only needed once

  2. WebView2 Installation:

    • If you don't have Microsoft Edge WebView2 Runtime installed
    • The installer will automatically download and install it
    • This is required for BB's user interface

Using BB

Initializing a Project

  1. Open Command Prompt
  2. Navigate to your project directory
  3. Run bb init
  4. Follow the prompts to configure your project

Starting BB

  1. Navigate to your project directory
  2. Run bb start
  3. BB will start and open in your default web browser

Stopping BB

  1. Navigate to your project directory
  2. Run bb stop

Optional: TLS Configuration

By default, BB runs without TLS for simplicity. If you want to enable HTTPS:

  1. View Current Status:

    bb secure status

    Shows TLS status and certificate details if enabled

  2. Enable TLS:

    bb secure on

    Note: You'll see a User Account Control (UAC) prompt to allow trust store updates

  3. View Certificates (after enabling):

    • Press Windows+R
    • Type certmgr.msc and press Enter
    • Expand "Trusted Root Certification Authorities"
    • Click "Certificates"
    • Look for "Beyond Better CA"

For more details, see the Certificate Management Guide.

Command Line Usage

You can also use BB directly from the command line:

  1. Open Command Prompt.
  2. Navigate to your project directory.
  3. Run the following commands as needed:
    • bb init to initialize a new project
    • bb start to start BB and open the browser interface
    • bb chat to start BB and use the command-line interface
    • bb stop to stop the BB server

Note: The commands above work without the .exe extension as long as the installation directory is in your PATH.

Troubleshooting

If you encounter any issues:

  1. Check the chat logs: bb logs
  2. Check the API logs: bb logs --api
  3. Ensure you're running Command Prompt as an administrator for certain operations.
  4. Verify that your Anthropic API key is correctly set in the .bb/config.yaml file.
  5. If using TLS, verify status: bb secure status

If problems persist, please create an issue on the BB GitHub repository with details about the error and steps to reproduce it.

For more information, refer to the main documentation or the installation guide.