Installing Burrow

Learn how to download and install Burrow on your Windows computer, and configure Windows Defender to ensure optimal performance.

Requirements

• OS: Windows 10 (64-bit) or Windows 11.
• Privileges: Administrator rights are required for installation. Burrow installs entirely inside your user profile.

Step 1: Download the Installer

Download the latest stable Windows installer from the Downloads Page.

Step 2: Run the Installer

Double-click the downloaded Burrow-Setup-x.y.z.exe file and follow the on-screen steps. Burrow installs to your user profile directory and sets up a background service that silently manages your local hosts file and port bindings — without any repetitive UAC prompts.

Step 3: First-Launch Wizard

On first launch, Burrow opens a setup wizard to download your initial development runtimes. To keep the installer lightweight, Burrow downloads the core binaries from official distributions sequentially:

• PHP 8.5 (Global Default)
• Node.js 26 (Global Default)
• Nginx (Stable Web Server)
• MariaDB (Database Server)
• phpMyAdmin (Database Management)
• mkcert (SSL Certificate Generator)

All runtimes are isolated inside your user profile at %USERPROFILE%\.burrow.

Performance

Sometimes the Windows Defender likes to scan Burrow folders and decreases your Burrow performance. You can create an exclude rule for the Burrow config folder for Windows Defender by adding the path %USERPROFILE%\.burrow to it and mitigate this issue.

Windows Defender Exclusions

Antivirus software can occasionally scan local server directories, reducing performance. We recommend adding the Burrow home folder to your Windows Defender exclusions list:

1. Open Windows Security from the Start menu.
2. Navigate to Virus & threat protection → Manage settings.
3. Scroll to Exclusions and click Add or remove exclusions.
4. Click Add an exclusion → Folder.
5. Enter the path %USERPROFILE%\.burrow and confirm.