mk6i-open-oscar-server/docs/WINDOWS.md

Retro AIM Server Quickstart for Windows 10/11

This guide explains how to download, configure and run Retro AIM Server on Windows 10/11.

1. Download Retro AIM Server

Grab the latest Windows release from the Releases page.

Because the Retro AIM Server .exe has not been blessed by Microsoft, browsers such as Chrome may think it's a "suspicious" file and block the download, in which case you need to explicitly opt in to downloading the untrusted file.

<p align="center">
  <img alt="screenshot of a chrome prompt showing a blocked download" src="https://github.com/mk6i/retro-aim-server/assets/2894330/6bf2fd79-0a42-48b2-a695-d777259a3603">
</p>

While the binaries are 100% safe, you can avoid the security concern by building the application yourself. We do not provide signed binaries because of the undue cost and complexity.

Once downloaded, extract the .zip archive, which contains the application and a configuration file settings.bat.

1. Configure Server Address

Open settings.bat (right-click, edit in notepad) and set OSCAR_HOST to a hostname that AIM clients can connect to. The default setting is 127.0.0.1, which is enough to connect clients on the same PC.

In order to connect AIM clients on your LAN (including VMs with bridged networking), you can find the appropriate IP address by running ipconfig from the Command Prompt.

1. Start the Application

Open run.cmd to launch Retro AIM Server.

Because Retro AIM Server has not been blessed by Microsoft, Windows will flag the application as a security risk the first time you run it. You'll be presented with a Microsoft Defender SmartScreen warning prompt that gives you the option to run the blocked application.

To proceed, click More Options, then Run anyway.

<p align="center">
  <img alt="of screenshot microsoft defender smartscreen prompt" src="https://github.com/mk6i/retro-aim-server/assets/2894330/9ab0966b-d5dd-4b70-ba16-483e5c458f89">
  <img alt="of screenshot microsoft defender smartscreen prompt" src="https://github.com/mk6i/retro-aim-server/assets/2894330/5d4106c6-0ce6-4d4f-9260-e9bbb777c770">
</p>

While the binaries are 100% safe, you can avoid the security concern by building the application yourself. We do not provide signed binaries because of the undue cost and complexity.

Retro AIM Server will open in a Command Prompt, ready to accept AIM client connections.

1. Test

To do a quick sanity check, start an AIM client, sign in to the server, and send yourself an instant message. Configure the AIM client to connect to the host set in OSCAR_HOST in settings.bat. (If you didn't change the config, the address is 127.0.0.1.)

See the Client Configuration Guide for more detail on setting up the AIM client.

By default, you can enter any screen name and password at the AIM sign-in screen to auto-create an account.

Account auto-creation is meant to be a convenience feature for local development. In a production deployment, you should set DISABLE_AUTH=false in settings.bat to enforce account authentication. User accounts can be created via the Management API.