WINDOWS Wallet Download / Installation Guide: (Updated: 08-February-2015)

LucD88

LucD88

Member
Guide for Darkcoin wallet on Windows rev1.2 (Updated: 08-February-2015)

Changelog:
rev1.2 (08-February-2015)
- Changed topic title
- Corrected spelling mistakes

rev1.1 (06-February-2015)
- Updated images
- Added styling
- Corrected spelling mistakes
- Added security advise
- Added thank you message
- Added wallet address for donations/tips

rev1.0 (05-February-2015)
- Initial release
Click to expand...


This guide has been created using Windows 8.1 but should also work for Windows XP, Windows Vista, Windows 7, Windows 8, Windows 8.1 and Windows 10. The main goal of this guide is to explain to new people (newbies) how to get started with the Darkcoin wallet and how to manage it afterwards.

First and foremost use this guide at your own risk, I'm not held responsible for any mistakes or errors that this guide may contain. I tried my best in making this guide understandable for nontechnical people. Just make sure you read every step carefully to prevent messing up.


Table of contents:
1. Download the Darkcoin wallet
2. Extract the Darkcoin wallet
3. Make the Darkcoin wallet portable
4. Synchronize with the Darkcoin network
5. Encrypting the Darkcoin wallet
6. Updating the Darkcoin wallet
7. Managing the Darkcoin wallet security-wise
8. Thank You!


1. Download the Darkcoin wallet
To download the latest Darkcoin wallet visit https://www.darkcoin.io/downloads/ (official website) and click the "Windows (zip)" button next to the Windows flag icon.

Note: Downloading may take a while depending on your connection's download speed.

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2. Extract the Darkcoin wallet
The downloaded Darkcoin wallet archive has a .Zip file extension. In order to be able to open this Darkcoin wallet archive we'll first need a program that's capable of opening .Zip file extensions. Download and install WinRAR (or use one you prefer - this guide uses WinRAR) from the official website http://www.rarlab.com/download.htm.

Once you have successfully downloaded and installed WinRAR, browse to the folder where you downloaded the Darkcoin wallet .Zip archive. Press the right mouse button on the Darkcoin wallet .Zip archive and choose "Extract Here".

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When extracted successfully you'll see that a new folder has appeared using the same name as the Darkcoin wallet .Zip archive.

VqH3yCH.jpg



Open the extracted folder, now open the folder that corresponds with your Windows version:
  • 32-bit (x86) Windows: Open the "32" folder.
  • 64-bit (x64) Windows: Open the "64" folder.
If you don't know what Windows version you're using it's safe to use the "32" folder. Reason is that 32-bit (x86) applications also work on 64-bit (x64) systems, but it doesn't the other way around.

Note: In this guide we'll use the "32" folder since that version works on both types of systems.

7i3aWHV.jpg



3. Make the Darkcoin wallet portable
Create a new folder inside the "32" folder and name it whatever you want, we'll name it "Darkcoin_portable".

vUXoeiF.jpg



Move the following files to your newly created (Darkcoin_portable) folder:
  • "darkcoin-cli"
  • "darkcoind"
  • "darkcoin-qt"
Within this folder create two new folders named:
  • "Darkcoin"
  • "DarkcoinData"
oGrAiDA.jpg



Move the following files to the "Darkcoin" folder:
  • "darkcoin-cli"
  • "darkcoind"
  • "darkcoin-qt"
Note: All the remaining files outside the "Darkcoin_portable" folder can be removed as we won't need them anymore in this guide.

Inside the main folder create a new text document by clicking your right mouse button on an empty space, select "New" and click "Text Document". (Sorry for the menu language - Dutch)

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Name the newly created text document "Temp".

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Open the newly created text document "Temp.txt" and exactly copy the following line of text into the text document:
start Darkcoin/darkcoin-qt.exe -datadir=DarkcoinData
Click to expand...
Note: It's case sensitive so make sure the folder names are exactly the same as the folder names in your "Darkcoin_portable" folder!

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Now click "File", "Save As..." and execute in the following order:
  • Save As: "All files (*.*)"
  • Filename: "Start Darkcoin.bat"
  • Click "Save"
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All set, now you can run the Darkcoin wallet by double-clicking the "Start Darkcoin" file.

Note: Always start the Darkcoin wallet using this file, else the Darkcoin wallet uses default settings that prevent your wallet.dat file from being loaded.

cUM4uX8.jpg



Running the Darkcoin wallet for the first time might require some patience as it has to generate your wallet. To check whether it's working as intended, open the "DarkcoinData" folder where you now should see various generated files and folders.

Note: If the folder remains empty you have done something wrong and I recommend you to start over.

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4. Synchronize with the Darkcoin network
Whenever the Darkcoin wallet has started successfully it will try to synchronize with the Darkcoin network, this means a working internet connection is required.

The red "(out of sync)" annotations indicate that the wallet is currently out of sync with the Darkcoin network. Depending on your connection speed and amount of connections the wallet has to the Darkcoin network, it could take a while before the Darkcoin wallet is completely synchronized with the Darkcoin network. Keep an eye on the progress bar at the bottom of the Darkcoin wallet.

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As soon as the Darkcoin wallet is completely done synchronizing it will show a green tick at the right bottom of the application.

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5. Encrypting the Darkcoin wallet
After being fully synchronized with the Darkcoin network it's highly advisable to encrypt your Darkcoin wallet with a password. Using a password you have never used before and is impossible to guess is the safest way to go with.

You can either think of such a password yourself or generate one at the following website:

Note: Make sure you take note of the password so you will never lose it.


To encrypt your wallet click "Settings" and click "Encrypt Wallet...".

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Now it should ask for a passphrase, enter the generated password in both fields and click "OK". It will ask for a confirmation, click "Yes", then click "OK" and the Darkcoin wallet will close after a few seconds.

jfVUGpu.jpg



If the Darkcoin wallet has closed you can now start the Darkcoin wallet again using the "Start Darkcoin" file we created earlier.

Note: Always start the Darkcoin wallet using this file, else the Darkcoin wallet uses default settings that prevent your wallet.dat file from being loaded.

cUM4uX8.jpg
 
Last edited by a moderator:
6. Updating the Darkcoin wallet
Since the Darkcoin wallet doesn't have a built-in auto-updater (for security reasons), it's wise to check the Darkcoin website (https://www.darkcoin.io/downloads/) for updates every once in awhile. Whenever there is an update available, download it as explained in Step 1 of this guide. After downloading the latest Darkcoin wallet, double-click the Darkcoin wallet .Zip archive to open it with WinRAR. (See Step 2 of this guide for more information on WinRAR)

Note: Before you continue make sure the Darkcoin wallet is closed and not running in the background, else this might interrupt the update process.

Opening the Darkcoin wallet .Zip archive shows you one folder, double-click it and open the folder that corresponds with your Windows version:
  • 32-bit (x86) Windows: Open the "32" folder.
  • 64-bit (x64) Windows: Open the "64" folder.

If you don't know what Windows version you're using it's safe to use the "32" folder. Reason is that 32-bit (x86) applications also work on 64-bit (x64) systems, but it doesn't the other way around.

Note: In this guide we'll use the "32" folder since that version works on both types of systems.

04Rfgky.jpg



Opening the folder that corresponds with your version of Windows will list several files. Before we continue make sure you have the "Darkcoin" folder - which can be found within the "Darkcoin_portable" folder - opened beforehand. Now go back to the opened Darkcoin wallet .Zip archive and select the files:
  • "darkcoin-cli"
  • "darkcoind"
  • "darkcoin-qt"

Move these selected files to the opened "Darkcoin" folder, overwrite all files when prompted to.

7VZS4Uc.jpg



That's it when it comes to updating the Darkcoin wallet. You can start the Darkcoin wallet again using the "Start Darkcoin" file we created earlier.

Note: Always start the Darkcoin wallet using this file, else the Darkcoin wallet uses default settings that prevent your wallet.dat file from being loaded.


7. Managing the Darkcoin wallet security-wise
If you followed all of the previous steps you have successfully created a portable and encrypted Darkcoin wallet. The biggest advantage of having a portable Darkcoin wallet is that it's possible to move it to wherever you want - even a USB drive - and run the "Start Darkcoin" file from there, no matter what the location is. But this doesn't necessarily mean your coins are safe.

It's highly recommended to create back-ups of your wallet.dat files (located in your "DarkcoinData" folder) by copying them to cold storage like USB drives. But even when you have back-ups it happens that for whatever reason you lose everything, including the back-ups. That's why it's important to print your wallet's private key on paper, more information on this can be found here: http://computriks.com/en/bitcoin-export-private-key. Such key can be imported into your wallet at a later stadium to retrieve your coins.

Note: Never, absolutely never give anyone your wallet's private key!

So am I safe now? No.. Even after making your Darkcoin wallet portable, encrypting your wallet, updating frequently, creating back-ups, and printing your private keys it's still possible that virusses, trojans, malware, hackers, and other backdoors steal your wallet.dat file that contains all of your coins. In order to prevent this as much as possible it's very important to keep your software up-to-date. Most software automatically updates but it won't hurt to double check, most common software:
  • Windows Updates: Run Windows Update
  • etc.

And last but not least - as an extra layer of security - it's never bad to have an active virusscanner and malwarescanner running on your system. This is what I'm running concurrently on my system and it has kept me safe for the past several years:


8. Thank You!
This is as far as my explainable expertise reaches, I hope this guide helped you along the way creating a safer and more understable way of using the Darkcoin wallet. This guide isn't perfect and I hope the community helps me find and fix mistakes/errors it still contains. If things are unclear, you need help, or you found a mistake/error, feel free to PM me anytime! :)

Creating this guide took me quite some time and effort. Any tips or donations are highly appreciated and might allow me to create more quality guides in the near future.

My DRK address:
Xc47dtebE53QiQSoJGtkY1zkfkwADy4mFs
 
LucD88 I already told you :wink: but thank you once again, great job! :smile:

buster made a linux version of this https://darkcointalk.org/threads/linux-wallet-download-installation-guide.3901/ ( thank you buster ! ) and while checking it I saw a data folder selection dialog on fresh start and booom... I just realized there is no mention that step 3 (Making the Darkcoin wallet portable) is actually optional and for the most of new users it's ok to work with default data folder and just launch darkcoin-qt without any bat file. I think it might worth explaining why having standalone installation might be helpful for them (like they can move darkcoin data folder to some external location or that that is some primitive way of stop silly hackers who could try to steal their wallet.dat but who is looking for default folder only etc). But anyway I guess you can give people an option to skip this step and give them a hint where default folder is located. This will allow them to start using wallet without any scary command line things and make an advanced version later when they get used to it a bit. Even though it's not that scary I think some of my windows-friends would stuck there forever and never pass this step otherwise :rolleyes:
 
UdjinM6 said:
LucD88 I already told you :wink: but thank you once again, great job! :smile:

buster made a linux version of this https://darkcointalk.org/threads/linux-wallet-download-installation-guide.3901/ ( thank you buster ! ) and while checking it I saw a data folder selection dialog on fresh start and booom... I just realized there is no mention that step 3 (Making the Darkcoin wallet portable) is actually optional and for the most of new users it's ok to work with default data folder and just launch darkcoin-qt without any bat file. I think it might worth explaining why having standalone installation might be helpful for them (like they can move darkcoin data folder to some external location or that that is some primitive way of stop silly hackers who could try to steal their wallet.dat but who is looking for default folder only etc). But anyway I guess you can give people an option to skip this step and give them a hint where default folder is located. This will allow them to start using wallet without any scary command line things and make an advanced version later when they get used to it a bit. Even though it's not that scary I think some of my windows-friends would stuck there forever and never pass this step otherwise :rolleyes:
Click to expand...
You got a point there, wrote it down. Will take a look at it whenever I find the time to reevaluate the guide at some points. Thanks! :smile:
 
UdjinM6 said:
LucD88 I already told you :wink: but thank you once again, great job! :smile:

buster made a linux version of this https://darkcointalk.org/threads/linux-wallet-download-installation-guide.3901/ ( thank you buster ! ) and while checking it I saw a data folder selection dialog on fresh start and booom... I just realized there is no mention that step 3 (Making the Darkcoin wallet portable) is actually optional and for the most of new users it's ok to work with default data folder and just launch darkcoin-qt without any bat file. I think it might worth explaining why having standalone installation might be helpful for them (like they can move darkcoin data folder to some external location or that that is some primitive way of stop silly hackers who could try to steal their wallet.dat but who is looking for default folder only etc). But anyway I guess you can give people an option to skip this step and give them a hint where default folder is located. This will allow them to start using wallet without any scary command line things and make an advanced version later when they get used to it a bit. Even though it's not that scary I think some of my windows-friends would stuck there forever and never pass this step otherwise :rolleyes:
Click to expand...

Hey UdjinM6
we are doing a
"How to secure / Cold storage Guide" after
so for Mac (example) i did not include that part (moving dat file) as that will be in the next guide, isn't that the same for PC !?
 
LucD88 said:
6. Updating the Darkcoin wallet
Since the Darkcoin wallet doesn't have a built-in auto-updater (for security reasons), it's wise to check the Darkcoin website (https://www.darkcoin.io/downloads/) for updates every once in awhile. Whenever there is an update available, download it as explained in Step 1 of this guide. After downloading the latest Darkcoin wallet, double-click the Darkcoin wallet .Zip archive to open it with WinRAR. (See Step 2 of this guide for more information on WinRAR)

Note: Before you continue make sure the Darkcoin wallet is closed and not running in the background, else this might interrupt the update process.

Opening the Darkcoin wallet .Zip archive shows you one folder, double-click it and open the folder that corresponds with your Windows version:
  • 32-bit (x86) Windows: Open the "32" folder.
  • 64-bit (x64) Windows: Open the "64" folder.
If you don't know what Windows version you're using it's safe to use the "32" folder. Reason is that 32-bit (x86) applications also work on 64-bit (x64) systems, but it doesn't the other way around.

Note: In this guide we'll use the "32" folder since that version works on both types of systems.

04Rfgky.jpg



Opening the folder that corresponds with your version of Windows will list several files. Before we continue make sure you have the "Darkcoin" folder - which can be found within the "Darkcoin_portable" folder - opened beforehand. Now go back to the opened Darkcoin wallet .Zip archive and select the files:
  • "darkcoin-cli"
  • "darkcoind"
  • "darkcoin-qt"
Move these selected files to the opened "Darkcoin" folder, overwrite all files when prompted to.

7VZS4Uc.jpg



That's it when it comes to updating the Darkcoin wallet. You can start the Darkcoin wallet again using the "Start Darkcoin" file we created earlier.

Note: Always start the Darkcoin wallet using this file, else the Darkcoin wallet uses default settings that prevent your wallet.dat file from being loaded.


7. Managing the Darkcoin wallet security-wise
If you followed all of the previous steps you have successfully created a portable and encrypted Darkcoin wallet. The biggest advantage of having a portable Darkcoin wallet is that it's possible to move it to wherever you want - even a USB drive - and run the "Start Darkcoin" file from there, no matter what the location is. But this doesn't necessarily mean your coins are safe.

It's highly recommended to create back-ups of your wallet.dat files (located in your "DarkcoinData" folder) by copying them to cold storage like USB drives. But even when you have back-ups it happens that for whatever reason you lose everything, including the back-ups. That's why it's important to print your wallet's private key on paper, more information on this can be found here: http://computriks.com/en/bitcoin-export-private-key. Such key can be imported into your wallet at a later stadium to retrieve your coins.

Note: Never, absolutely never give anyone your wallet's private key!

So am I safe now? No.. Even after making your Darkcoin wallet portable, encrypting your wallet, updating frequently, creating back-ups, and printing your private keys it's still possible that virusses, trojans, malware, hackers, and other backdoors steal your wallet.dat file that contains all of your coins. In order to prevent this as much as possible it's very important to keep your software up-to-date. Most software automatically updates but it won't hurt to double check, most common software:
  • Windows Updates: Run Windows Update
  • etc.
And last but not least - as an extra layer of security - it's never bad to have an active virusscanner and malwarescanner running on your system. This is what I'm running concurrently on my system and it has kept me safe for the past several years:

8. Thank You!
This is as far as my explainable expertise reaches, I hope this guide helped you along the way creating a safer and more understable way of using the Darkcoin wallet. This guide isn't perfect and I hope the community helps me find and fix mistakes/errors it still contains. If things are unclear, you need help, or you found a mistake/error, feel free to PM me anytime! :)

Creating this guide took me quite some time and effort. Any tips or donations are highly appreciated and might allow me to create more quality guides in the near future.

My DRK address:
Xc47dtebE53QiQSoJGtkY1zkfkwADy4mFs
Click to expand...

Can you please start working on "rebranding" the guide ?!
that would be great and super appreciated
Tx
 
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