How to Install OpenClaw on Windows?

OpenClaw doesn't run natively on Windows, but works perfectly through WSL2 (Windows Subsystem for Linux). WSL2 is built into Windows 10/11 and runs a full Linux kernel with near-native performance.

First, enable WSL2. Open PowerShell as administrator and run the install command. Windows will download the Linux kernel and Ubuntu distribution. Restart your computer when prompted.

After restart, open Ubuntu from the Start menu. Create a Linux username and password. From here, the installation is identical to regular Linux — run the install script and go through the onboarding wizard.

WSL2 is lightweight and uses minimal resources. OpenClaw will be accessible from both the Ubuntu terminal and your Windows browser at localhost. Files are stored in the Linux filesystem — work there, not in /mnt/c, for better performance.

Alternatively, you can use Docker Desktop for Windows, which uses WSL2 as its backend. This approach is cleaner if you're already familiar with Docker — just pull the OpenClaw image and run it with Docker Compose.

For auto-start with Windows, add the OpenClaw launch command to your Ubuntu .bashrc file, or configure a Windows Task Scheduler entry that starts WSL on login.

wsl --install

# Inside Ubuntu (WSL2):
curl -fsSL https://openclaw.sh/install | bash
openclaw onboard