Bitcoin Lightning Node Launcher Windows Developer Setup

Install Visual C++ Redistributable for Visual Studio 2015

This is needed to avoid a bug with the Node Launcher’s UI library (Qt / PySide2)

https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=48145

Install OpenSSL

Python’s package manager (pip) does not work on Windows without OpenSSL installed

Go to https://slproweb.com/products/Win32OpenSSL.html

Download the latest Win64 EXE, currently Win64 OpenSSL v1.1.1b

Open the .exe and install OpenSSL with all of the default options

Install git

Git is the version control software used by the Node Launcher (and any other software project hosted on GitHub)

Go to https://git-scm.com/download/win

The download should start automatically

Install git with all the defaults

Install Python

The Node Launcher is written in Python, an easy to read programming language

Go to https://www.python.org/downloads/windows/

Download the latest stable Windows x86–64 executable installer, but keep reading before installing!

Right click the downloaded file and Run as administrator

Make sure both boxes are checked

Then click Install Now

Install PyCharm

Go to https://www.jetbrains.com/pycharm/download/#section=windows

Download the latest PyCharm Community Edition

Install PyCharm Community Edition with the defaults

From the Start menu, right click PyCharm Community Edition and Run as administrator

Click on Check out from Version Control / Git

Copy https://github.com/lightning-power-users/node-launcher

Paste it in to clone the repository and click the Clone button

Click the Terminal tab at the bottom

Type in

pip install -r requirements.txt

Right click on run.py and select Debug ‘run’

The Node Launcher should start!