An installer that finishes in five minutes can still take a week to reach a laptop. The delay is rarely the software. It is the device policy standing in front of it, the administrator rights nobody scheduled, and the network the first model download needs. Installation is the operational question buyers raise more than any other in our sales meetings, and the complaint right behind it is that the install broke on their environment and nothing matched the documentation.
Install & First Run
How Do You Install, Activate and
Onboard the AI Application?
What is inside the download, the order the five first-run steps happen in, what stops the installer on a locked-down laptop, and where a new user starts.
Built from real buyer questions in our sales meetings
Direct Answer
Five steps, and the download carries the guide. AirgapAI arrives as a package of roughly four gigabytes that extracts into folders — one holds an install guide, another sample data sets. The order is fixed: confirm the device meets the spec, run the executable, settle entitlement, add a model, load a data set. Iternal puts the install itself at under five minutes and download plus install at roughly fifteen minutes per person. Entitlement is settled offline: a license key is issued with the download, and the application verifies it against a public key baked into the build rather than by calling an activation server.
The known failure lands before the first click. On a managed estate the installer is the first thing that breaks. Iternal signs the software, and a hardened Windows device can still refuse an unfamiliar executable; a direct download of an .exe reliably raises the platform warning telling the user not to run it; unblocking a locked-down executable needs local administrator rights. Book the first run as an IT task with a ticket behind it. The model arrives separately for a mechanical reason — a 32-bit Windows installer is hard capped at two gigabytes — so the first model download needs a network or removable media.
The limit: a clean install is not an onboarded user. Install success and adoption are separate events, and only the first is automated. A user can finish the orientation and land back on the home page with no obvious way into the flow. Iternal says plainly that the onboarding experience could be significantly improved, and smaller firms hit a learning curve because this is business software rather than a consumer app. A guided walkthrough and one named first workflow close that gap. Nothing in the installer does.
Settle four things in writing first. The exact build number and where the app displays it; the device spec you are held to; the known-issues list for that build; and the first five actions a new user should take. For more information on which devices to buy, visit the sizing page. For more information on pushing the software across a large managed estate, visit the rollout page.
What Ships in the Download, and the Order the Steps Happen In
The download is a package, not a bare installer. Right-click, extract all, and you get folders — an install guide among them, sample data sets in another. These five steps are the documented first-run sequence, and they only work in this order.
- Check the device first. The model runs on the machine itself, so the machine has to carry it. Iternal describes AirgapAI as needing an AI PC of roughly 2024 vintage or newer, ideally with a GPU or an NPU, and names an Intel Core Ultra Series 1 165U as the floor on the Intel line.
- Run the executable. AirgapAI installs the way Word or Excel installs — one click, no servers to stand up first. The application, the data sets folder and the chat histories live under each user’s AppData profile folder.
- Settle entitlement. A license key is issued with the download and the check happens on the machine: AirgapAI verifies the key offline against a public key baked into the application, so there is no activation server to reach and no phone-home step. Because nothing on the network is counting installs for you, put seat counts and transfers in the contract and in your asset record.
- Add a model. First launch opens an onboarding flow for choosing a language model — add one with the plus icon, pick a chat model from the dropdown, then select an embeddings model from the same folder before saving. A Llama 3B chat model appears in the list, and more can be pulled from the model window. Packaging your own documents on the device needs the Blockify model added the same way.
- Load a data set. Sample data sets ship inside the package and are added one at a time from the data sets folder. The user then picks which of them a session queries across.
Iternal is direct about the consequence, and it is the sentence to plan around: the download is not ready to go on its own, and elements get added after it is installed.
Which Build You Are On, and How to Prove It
Release numbers move faster than collateral, so the number belongs in your purchase record rather than on a web page. Three checks give the answer on the day: the settings page shows which version is installed, newer builds display the number inside the app, and pasting the auto-updater URL into a browser returns the current version without touching a laptop. The screen a user sees depends on the build too, because the newer model-selection experience is absent from older versions. Which number is current on the day you sign is not something a published page can tell you. Ask for it, and for the three facts that hang off it:
Pin it down: questions for your evaluation
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Which exact build will we receive, and where does the application display that number?The fact every troubleshooting conversation starts from, fixed at purchase rather than inferred.
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Is the installer code-signed, and can we run our own security scan before release into our environment?Whether your endpoint policy will accept the file, answered on your own scanner instead of a datasheet.
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What is the known-issues list for that build, and which items affect an upgrade over an existing install?The upgrade behavior in advance, including whether an older copy and its shortcut survive.
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What is the minimum device configuration you will support us on, in writing?The line between a device problem and a product problem, drawn before anyone argues about it.
Matching models to memory and silicon is a sizing question rather than an install question. For more information visit the sizing page.
When the Managed Laptop Refuses the Install
The most common install failure has nothing to do with the application. Buyers described it in near-identical terms again and again: staff lack local administrator rights, so a managed IT provider has to authorize the install; a large integrator treats anything unsigned as an immediate issue; a federal customer loads a standard image that erases anything preinstalled. One buyer put the commercial version of the point directly: customers refuse pre-installed software and want only the clean solution they chose.
The answer is packaging, and the product already suits it. AirgapAI ships as a standard Windows executable, exactly the shape existing device-management tooling expects: it can be packaged with its artifacts, pushed to desktops and laptops, and dropped into a golden-master imaging and update process like any other business application. Iternal signs the software and hands over its security documentation up front, and because the application works with no network the security review tends to be short. Factory preinstall is not offered today, because customers reimage the systems anyway.
Then plan the lead time. Iternal proposes three days as a minimum to clear an install with IT, and seven or eight is the more typical ask. The sequence that works is unglamorous: raise the help-desk ticket, let IT unlock or push the install, and hold the walkthrough afterwards rather than in the middle of the failure. For more information on pushing the software across a large managed estate, visit the rollout page.
Known Issues Worth Reading Before You Roll It Out
Publishing the failure modes costs nothing and saves a support queue. These come up most often in the field, each with the fix that clears it:
- The browser warning on a direct download. The link points straight at an executable downloader, so Windows flags the file as not commonly downloaded. In Edge or Chrome, open the three-dot menu on the download and approve it.
- Two copies of the app after an upgrade. An update has left the previous version and its shortcut in place under local programs, so the old shortcut kept launching the outdated build — and the new shortcut is an optional checkbox a user can miss. Relaunch from the Program Files folder and confirm the number on the settings page.
- Updates that never arrived. Auto-updater faults have meant a pushed update did not reach the installed application, and the newest build had to be fetched from a manual link.
- Onboarding steps that stall. A Next button doing nothing in the onboarding flow was confirmed as a bug, and the provider settings screen has stuck and needed a restart.
- An invisible link in the account email. One activation email rendered its log-in link in white, so the recipient found it by clicking it by accident.
Each item is an environment or packaging fault rather than a capability gap, and each has already cost someone an afternoon. Iternal draws the blunt conclusion itself: a part number and a self-install guide are not enough on their own, because an IT director who downloads the software with no instructions cannot get it running. Ask for the current list against your exact build, because the list moves when the build moves.
The First Session: Where a New User Actually Starts
Most chat tools open on an empty prompt box and dare the user to be clever. AirgapAI opens on icons, and that difference is the onboarding strategy: the pre-prompted workflow, not the blank field, is the front door.
- Start from a workflow icon. Iternal ships over 2,800 pre-prompted quick launch workflows as home-screen icons, across departments and verticals. Each holds the real prompt behind the scenes, so a two-word instruction still returns a usable draft.
- Turn a data set on. A session begins by choosing which documents the answer may draw from: click the pill in the chat reporting no active data set and toggle one on.
- Open settings and look at three tabs. The AI models tab runs one language model at a time from a dropdown, the models tab opens a library of more models, and the context-window slider sets how much the model reads at once. The installed version number sits on the same page.
- Tune the home screen from workflow configs. That tab toggles the icons on and off, edits the pre-prompted detail behind each one, and holds personas. An imported workflow file appears as a new icon once the interface refreshes.
- Get the output out. Chat history sits in the left rail. Export a chat from the three-dot button at the top right as text or PDF, and workflow output as a plain text file or a Word document.
One note on sharing. Sharing means exporting. AirgapAI has no shared multi-user instance — one interface and one chat history belong to one Windows profile. A colleague reads your output because you exported it and sent it, not because you handed over a live session. Personas and workflow configs are the customization surface that exists today, so tune those rather than hunt for preferences that reshape the app.
Answered elsewhere
- Which devices, memory and silicon the software needs — see the sizing page.
- Pushing the application across a large managed estate, imaging and device supply — see the rollout page.
- Whether it installs outside Windows, in virtual desktops or in containers — see the environments page.
- Who supports it and how updates reach it once it is live — see the day-two page.
- Getting an evaluation copy and what a free tier includes — see the evaluation-copy page.
- Per-user permissions and an administrator console — see the access-control page.
FAQ
FAQ: Install, Activation and First Run
Almost. Right-click the download, extract all, then run the executable inside — the package holds an install guide and sample data sets, not a bare installer. AirgapAI then installs like any other Windows application: Iternal puts the install at under five minutes, and download plus install at roughly fifteen minutes per person. On a corporate laptop the double-click is the easy part; the approval in front of it is not.
The link points straight at an executable downloader, so Windows flags the file as not commonly downloaded. Clear it from the browser download menu — in Edge or Chrome, open the three-dot menu on the download and approve it. A hardened managed device goes further than a warning: unblocking the executable needs local administrator rights, so route it to IT.
Treat the install as an IT task and give it lead time. A managed IT provider or internal help desk authorizes it, and once the machines are unlocked the deployment proceeds normally. AirgapAI ships as a standard Windows executable, so it can be packaged with its artifacts and pushed through tooling you already run. Iternal proposes three days as the minimum to clear an install with IT; seven or eight is the typical ask.
The settings page shows which version is installed, and newer builds display the number inside the app. IT can also paste the auto-updater URL into a browser, which returns the current version without touching a laptop. Check after every upgrade: an update has been known to leave the previous version and its shortcut in place, so the old shortcut keeps launching the outdated build.
Yes, and it never leaves the machine. A license key is issued with the download, and AirgapAI verifies it offline against a public key baked into the application, so there is no activation server to reach and no phone-home step — which is what lets the software run with no network at all. The entitlement is tied to the device, so seat counts and transfers stay in your contract and your asset record rather than in a central console.
On a quick launch workflow icon, not an empty prompt box. The home screen carries pre-prompted workflows as icons — Iternal ships over 2,800 of them — and each holds the real prompt behind the scenes, so a weak instruction still returns a usable draft. Then turn a data set on from the pill in the chat. Budget a guided walkthrough anyway: a user can finish the orientation and land back on the home page with no obvious route into the flow.
Book the IT Ticket Before You Book the Training
The install is short and the approval in front of it is not, so run them in that order: clear the executable with IT, get the build number and the known-issues list in writing, install one machine, then sit a real user in front of the home screen and watch which icon they click first. That last five minutes tells you more about adoption than the deployment plan does.