Installing pod on Windows

Download pod, put it somewhere sensible, and double-click it. There is nothing else to install, and the whole thing takes about two minutes.

There is nothing to "install" in the traditional sense: no installer wizard, no registry, no account signup on a website. pod is just a program you keep in a folder. Below are the ways to get it, in the order we recommend them: the folder download (coming in the next version, and the one we'll point you at from then on), the single-file download that works today, and a one-line installer that is still being finished.

You install nothing else. No ffmpeg, no Node, no Python, no config file to write by hand. pod fetches the pieces it needs on its own the first time it runs, and asks for your keys in a short wizard. That's the entire setup.

Option A: the folder download (recommended)

Coming in the next version. The folder download ships with the release after 2.9.11. If the link below gives you a "not found" page today, it isn't live yet. Use Option B, which works right now and stays supported.

This version arrives as a zip, a compressed folder holding pod and the handful of files it needs, instead of one big program file. It is exactly the same studio, but Windows is much happier with it, for the reason explained under Defender below.

Step 1: Download the zip

Windows 64-bit: https://lic.brainpuddle.com/dl/windows-x64-dir

Your browser saves it to your Downloads folder as a zip file.

Step 2: Extract it into Documents (not Downloads)

Right-click the zip and choose Extract All…. Windows offers to unpack it right where it is. Change that. Click Browse, pick your Documents folder, then click Extract.

Why Documents and not Downloads: your films are saved in an episodes folder right next to pod itself. Leave pod in Downloads and months of work ends up in the folder everyone treats as disposable. Documents is the safe, boring, correct answer. (Anywhere permanent works: a projects folder, another drive. Just not Downloads, and not the temporary window Windows shows you when you double-click a zip.)

Step 3: Open the pod folder and run pod.exe

Inside Documents you now have a folder called pod. Open it and you'll see pod.exe along with a number of support files. Double-click pod.exe.

Keep the folder together. pod.exe needs the files sitting beside it, so don't drag it out on its own to your Desktop. If you want it closer to hand, right-click pod.exe → Send to → Desktop (create shortcut). The shortcut you can put anywhere.

The first run shows the same blue SmartScreen notice described in Step 3 of Option B. Click More info → Run anyway, once. Then skip ahead to First run.

Option B: the single-file download

This is the path our clients are onboarding on today, and it will keep working. It's also the answer whenever you want one file you can carry on a USB stick. It is three steps and about two minutes.

Step 1: Download the right build

Almost every Windows machine made in the last decade is 64-bit, so start here:

Windows 64-bit (the one you almost certainly want): https://lic.brainpuddle.com/dl/windows-x64
Windows 32-bit (older machines only): https://lic.brainpuddle.com/dl/windows-x86

Click the link and your browser saves the file, usually into your Downloads folder, named pod-windows-x64.exe.

Note: On the 32-bit build, animated title cards degrade to simple static cards. The films themselves (every shot, every clip, the full edit) are completely unaffected. If your machine can run the 64-bit build, use that one.

Step 2: Rename it to pod.exe

Open your Downloads folder, find the file you just downloaded, right-click it, choose Rename, and name it:

pod.exe

The hidden-ending trap: Windows usually hides file endings, so if you type pod.exe while renaming you may accidentally create pod.exe.exe. Safest: rename it to just pod, and Windows quietly keeps the hidden .exe for you. (To see real endings: open the folder → View → check File name extensions.)

That's its real name. Now move it out of Downloads, into Documents, or any folder you'd be sad to lose. Your films are saved in an episodes folder right next to pod.exe, so wherever you leave it is where your work will live.

Step 3: The SmartScreen warning (expected, and fine)

Double-click pod.exe. The first time you run it, Windows will very likely show a blue screen that says "Windows protected your PC". This is SmartScreen. Two ordinary things cause it: pod hasn't paid for a Microsoft code-signing certificate, and any file your browser downloads gets stamped as "came from the internet". Neither is a finding that something is wrong with the file. It is a reputation warning, and it appears once.

Click More info (a small link in the warning text).
Click Run anyway.

Windows remembers your choice; you won't see the warning every time.

Tip: Unsigned is not unsafe. The warning simply means the app is new to Microsoft. And once pod is running, its own updates are protected far more strictly than SmartScreen ever checks: every update pod fetches for itself is cryptographically verified before installing, and it refuses anything tampered, mismatched, or older than what you already have. See Updating.

If Defender calls the single file a virus

On some Windows 11 machines, Defender stops the single-file pod.exe with "the file contains a virus" and the name Trojan:Win32/Wacatac.H!ml. The !ml on the end means a machine-learning guess about the shape of the file rather than a match against a known virus: a single-file program has to unpack itself into a temporary folder before it can run, and that behaviour looks, from the outside, like something malware also does. Nothing was found in pod itself. The file you downloaded matches the checksum in pod's signed release manifest, which is the check that actually proves the file is genuine and unmodified.

The folder download exists precisely to avoid this: it never unpacks itself, so the heuristic has nothing to fire on. If you're seeing the Defender message today, that is the version to move to when it lands, and in the meantime, tell us and we'll get you a copy directly.

Option C: the one-line installer

Not ready yet. This one is still being finished, and pasting the line today gets you a PowerShell error, not an install. It is written down here so you know it's coming; use Option A or Option B in the meantime.

When it's ready, you'll press the Windows key, type PowerShell, press Enter, and paste one line:

irm https://lic.brainpuddle.com/install.ps1 | iex

It will need no administrator rights, and it takes care of things you'd otherwise do by hand: it picks and downloads the right build, checks it against pod's signed release manifest and refuses to install if a single byte is wrong, installs into your own user folder (%LOCALAPPDATA%\Programs\Pod) and adds it to your PATH so you can type pod in any terminal window, clears the "downloaded from the internet" mark so SmartScreen never appears at all, and drops a Pod Studio shortcut in your Start Menu. It also takes your licence key in the same command, so setup becomes a single paste:

& ([scriptblock]::Create((irm https://lic.brainpuddle.com/install.ps1))) -Key pod_sk_…

Some work computers block remote scripts entirely (an execution-policy or security-software rule). If yours does, nothing is wrong with your machine. The downloads above are the way in, and they stay supported permanently for exactly this reason.

First run: your keys, then the toolchain

However you got pod here, the first run is the same. It opens a short, friendly wizard and asks for your keys: your pod licence key (pod_sk_…), then your own generation key from kie.ai (unless you're on a managed studio account, which needs only the licence key), and finally an optional ElevenLabs key for voice-over, which you can skip with Enter. Pod saves them to a private file in your home folder that only you can read, so this happens once. That step has its own page: Setting up your keys.

Then pod sets up its own little workshop. It downloads its toolchain, about 250 MB, one time only: a video engine for cutting and mixing your films, and a local graphics renderer for things like title cards. You'll see the progress live in the window; just let it finish. There is nothing for you to install, and nothing else on your computer is touched. When it's done, pod offers to render you a free demo clip on the spot.

Then you're in. A bordered box with a ❯ prompt appears (that's the studio) and a page called Pod Studio opens in your browser alongside it. Type what you want in plain words, in any language:

❯ make a 30-second teaser for my thriller, telugu, moody
  (pod shows you the exact command it plans to run — Enter runs it, n backs out)

Nothing renders and nothing is spent until you say go. Your first launch also plays a 30-second tour, and you can type demo any time to render a free five-second local clip, with no credits and no internet generation, just to prove everything works. When you're ready for a real production, head to Your first film.

Checking the setup: pod doctor

If anything ever looks off (titles rendering strangely, a first run that got interrupted, a machine that's been asleep for a month), type this inside the studio:

❯ doctor
  (re-checks the whole setup and renders two free local test clips)

It re-checks everything pod depends on, repairs the toolchain if needed, and renders two free local test clips so you can see with your own eyes that video and graphics both work. It costs nothing and it's safe to run any time.

How updating works on Windows

You never go back to the download link. When a new version ships, just type update inside the studio. pod fetches the new version and cryptographically verifies it came from its makers before installing anything.

Windows has one quirk: a running program can't overwrite its own file. So on Windows, the update finishes with one move command shown on screen. pod prints exactly what to type. Close pod, press the Windows key, type cmd, press Enter, paste that line, press Enter, and you're done. That single shown command is the entire Windows update ritual. The full story is on the Updating page.

Updates ship frequently, often the same week feedback comes in. If something bugs you, the feedback command sends a note straight to the makers, and report sends a bug report with context attached.

On the folder version: if update ever tells you it can't replace itself, download the zip again and extract it over the same folder. Your episodes folder and your saved keys are untouched by that, since the films live inside the folder and the keys live in your home folder.

If something goes wrong

Defender says the file contains a virus. That's the machine-learning false positive on the single-file build; see the section above. The folder download avoids it.
The one-line installer errors out. It isn't ready yet, or your PC blocks remote scripts. Use the folder download or the single file; both are fully supported.
SmartScreen keeps appearing or blocks the run. Click More info → Run anyway. Unsigned, not unsafe.
pod.exe won't start after you moved it. On the folder version it needs the files that came with it. Move the whole pod folder, and use a Desktop shortcut if you want it handy.
"pod is not recognised" in a terminal. Close that window and open a fresh one; it listed its commands before pod arrived.
Titles or visuals look wrong. Run doctor; it self-heals the toolchain.
pod was closed mid-film (crash, closed laptop, Ctrl-C). Reopen pod and type resume; it continues from the exact checkpoint and never redoes approved work or pays twice for the same take.

More cures live on the Troubleshooting page. On a Mac instead? See Installing on Mac.

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