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Windows desktop

Requires: Windows 10 or 11 (64-bit). Nothing else to install first. The desktop client is a native Flutter app that renders video through libmpv, bundled in the zip alongside the exe, so there's no separate runtime to set up. It does embed a small admin-console pane using the Windows WebView2 runtime, which ships with Windows 11 and is already present on most Windows 10 machines; if it's missing, that one pane just opens in your default browser instead and nothing else changes.

  1. On the Releases page, download CrumbVMS-windows-<version>.zip. libmpv and everything else the app needs are inside it, so there's no separate file to manage.
  2. Unzip it anywhere, keeping the files together: crumb_desktop.exe needs libmpv-2.dll and the data/ folder next to it. Run crumb_desktop.exe. Windows SmartScreen will warn about an unrecognized app, it's unsigned during the alpha: click "More info" then "Run anyway."
  3. Optionally right-click crumb_desktop.exe to pin it to Start or the taskbar.
  4. Use "Find my server" or enter http://<server-host>:8080, then log in.

Updating is unzipping the newer release over the top, or into a fresh folder.

What you can do here​

This is one of the two clients I drive every day, so it's the most complete. Live wall with per-camera stream quality including a Data-saver tier (a low-bitrate transcode, marked with an "SD" chip on the tile), timeline playback, clips and export, per-camera PTZ controls, the LPR license-plate reads tab with plate crops and watchlist search, and a Home Assistant entity overlay that paints your linked sensor and control states on top of the live video. See the client feature rundown for how this compares to the other clients.

Troubleshooting​

SymptomLikely cause
Video panes blacklibmpv-2.dll isn't next to crumb_desktop.exe; re-unzip the release rather than moving the exe out on its own.
"Windows protected your PC"SmartScreen on the unsigned alpha build; click "More info" then "Run anyway."
Connects, lists cameras, live panes stay blackThe server's RTSP address isn't set; see Server settings.