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Installation

What you need

  • Windows 10 version 1809 or newer, or Windows 11; x64 or ARM64.
  • Home Assistant with one of these:
    • the MQTT integration and a broker, e.g. the Mosquitto add-on. This is the recommended way. The notification entity needs Home Assistant 2024.5 or newer.
    • a long-lived access token for an administrator account, for the WebSocket engine, which needs no broker but can do less.

Without installing anything, and without administrator rights, there is the portable version.

With the installer

Download the installer that matches the computer from the releases page: HADA-<version>-x64.msi for Intel and AMD processors, HADA-<version>-arm64.msi for ARM64. Each release also has a SHA256SUMS.txt to check the download against. The installers are self-contained, so the computer needs no .NET.

Double-click the installer and follow the three pages. It:

  • copies HADA to C:\Program Files\HADA
  • registers the HADA service (LocalSystem, starts with Windows, restarts a minute after a crash) and starts it
  • starts the tray app at sign-in for every user, and adds HADA to the Start menu. Each user can turn this off with Start with Windows on the Settings page; the service itself always starts with Windows
  • offers to open the HADA window on the last page, where you choose Unlock editing and set up a connection

To update, run a newer installer, or use Download and install on the Overview page when it offers a newer version; either replaces the old version and keeps the settings. To remove HADA, use Settings → Apps → Installed apps. Settings and logs in %ProgramData%\HADA are left in place; delete that folder to forget them.

For unattended installation: msiexec /i HADA-<version>-x64.msi /qn. The tray app then starts at the next sign-in.

The installers are not code-signed, so Windows SmartScreen may warn before running them. Choose More info → Run anyway, or sign them with your own certificate.

Next: First setup.

By hand

For when you build HADA yourself and do not want an installer.

Steps 1 and 2 write to C:\Program Files and register a service, so run them in an elevated PowerShell.

1. Publish

Use win-x64 or win-arm64 to match the machine:

dotnet publish src/HADA.Service -c Release -r win-x64 --self-contained -o "C:\Program Files\HADA\service"
dotnet publish src/HADA.Tray -c Release -r win-x64 --self-contained -o "C:\Program Files\HADA\tray"

2. Register the service (elevated PowerShell)

sc.exe create HADA binPath= "C:\Program Files\HADA\service\HADA.Service.exe" start= delayed-auto DisplayName= "Home Assistant Desktop App"
sc.exe failure HADA reset= 86400 actions= restart/60000/restart/60000/restart/60000
sc.exe start HADA

The service runs as LocalSystem. See Logs for where it reports problems.

To remove it:

sc.exe stop HADA
sc.exe delete HADA

3. Start the tray at sign-in

New-ItemProperty -Path "HKCU:\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run" -Name "HADA.Tray" -Value '"C:\Program Files\HADA\tray\HADA.Tray.exe" --background --autostart' -PropertyType String -Force

Only one tray instance runs per user session. Then open the window from the tray icon and configure a connection.