Pre-installation Requirement

RailLab is a desktop software written in C#.NET published as a self-contained single-file application for Windows 10 (build 19041) and later
The services related to RailLab are hosted in the Azure Public Cloud and are managed entirely by Rail Concept

Recommended user PC configuration:

Windows 11
8-core CPU or higher
32GB RAM
20GB free disk space (SSD)
Internet connection (once a week)

Minimum user PC configuration:

Windows 10 (build 19041) and later
4-core CPU or higher
16GB RAM
20GB free disk space (SSD)
Internet connection (once a week)

Installation steps

We offer three way to install RailLab on the end user PC to fit as many use case as possible
All those methods are equivalent in the way they install the same exact RailLab version

We do not recommend using the RLauncher if end users have internet access restrictions or what they can install and run on their machine
While every install process has been designed to not necessitate local admin rights, it might still necessitate rights depending on the target environnement

RLauncher

RLauncher is a simple launcher software that allows easily downloading, installing and switching between RailLab versions
RLauncher can either be installed using with a setup or in portable mode

Installing RLauncher Portable

Download RLauncher portable archive
Unzip the RLauncher-win-Portable.zip archive to the desired install location
Run RLauncher.exe
(Optional) Delete RLauncher-win-Portable.zip as it is no longer necessary
(Optional) To uninstall simply delete the previously created install folder

Installing RLauncher Setup

Download RLauncher setup
Run the RLauncher-win-Setup.exe setup
RLauncher should launch automatically
(Optional) Delete RLauncher-win-Setup.exe as it is no longer necessary
(Optional) To uninstall use the Installed Apps feature of windows:

RLauncher configuration

(Optional) Choose your desired language for RLauncher:

Restart is necessary for language change to take effect
(Optional) Choose your desired destination folder installed RailLab versions:
Changing the folder will not migrate previously installed RailLab versions

For system administrators and advanced users, RLauncher configuration is stored in the %appdata%\RLauncher\config.json file
The file is recreated with default values if missing at RLauncher startup

RLauncher usage

(Optional) Refresh the list of available versions:
Select the channel:
(Optional) Consult the changelog for the wanted version:
Click to install the wanted RailLab version (portable mode):

Or click to install the wanted RailLab version (setup mode):

To understand the difference between portable and setup mode see the Portable section
Launch the installed RailLab version:
(Optional) Uninstall an installed version:

Portable

Installing RailLab as portable keeps all the RailLab work files in the installed folder
This can also be useful if the user wants to keep separate configuration for different version or if the users doesn’t have permissions to writes files in %localappdata%\RailLabData

Find and download the wanted version on download.raillab.fr
Portable versions are labelled as Portable - Signed
Unzip the downloaded 7z archive to the desired install location
Run RailConcept.RailLab.exe
(Optional) Delete the 7z archive as it is no longer necessary
(Optional) To uninstall simply delete the installation folder previously created

Setup

We provide setups created using Velopack starting 1.2.17

Find and download the wanted version on download.raillab.fr
Setup versions are labelled as Setup - Signed
Unzip the downloaded 7z archive
Run the extracted setup
RailLab should automatically start after install
(Optional) Delete the 7z archive and the extracted setup as they are no longer necessary
(Optional) To uninstall use the Installed Apps feature of windows:

For system administrator and advanced users, setups features various CLI arguments documented here:
https://docs.velopack.io/reference/cli/content/setup-windows