Installing BigData for Windows

Downloading the beta, getting past the Windows warning, signing in, updates, and where your things are kept.

Download and install

BigData for Windows is part of AllDataLogs Pro. Anyone can download the installer, but it needs an active Pro membership to open a log. If you sign in without one you get a screen offering Start Pro and Manage subscription rather than a dead end.

The app is also a beta. It is stable enough for daily use and it updates itself, but expect changes between versions, and tell us when something is wrong.

Download BigData-Setup-<version>.exe from the download page.
Run it. It installs for the current Windows user only, so it never asks for an administrator password, and you can choose the folder.
Sign in with your alldatalogs.com account.

Windows will warn you the first time

You have to approve the install by hand. Windows SmartScreen shows “Windows protected your PC” for installers it has not seen before. Click More info, then Run anyway. This is not a virus warning.

Your browser may also hold the download with a Keep or Keep anyway option. Same reason, same answer.

It happens because the installer is not yet code-signed with a certificate Windows recognises. Signing is in progress. Once it is live the publisher name appears instead of “Unknown publisher”, and the warning stops once enough people have installed that version.

Signing in

The app needs to reach alldatalogs.com once to activate on this PC. After that it keeps a signed statement of your membership and re-checks quietly in the background, so it opens and works with no connection at all.

If you sign in with an account that has no membership you get a screen offering Start Pro, Manage subscription, Check again and Sign out, rather than a dead end. A log you double-clicked before signing in is queued and opens as soon as you are in.

Signing out here does not sign you out of the website in your browser.

Updates

The app checks for a new version a few seconds after it starts, then every four hours while it runs. A new version downloads in the background and then asks whether to restart; choose Restart now and it installs itself, or Later and it waits. You can also check by hand at any time.

Updates are cumulative, so a machine several versions behind jumps straight to the newest one. What is new lists every release.

Where your things are kept

Everything the app stores lives under %APPDATA%\BigData:

`session.bin`	Your sign-in, encrypted by Windows for your user account. Deleted when you sign out.
`license.json`	The signed statement of your membership and when it was last checked. It is tied to this installation, so copying it elsewhere does nothing.
`recent.json`	Your History list of local files, kept separately for each account that signs in on this PC. Paths only, never copies of your logs.
`history.json`	The “Save opened logs to my account” switch.
Browser storage	Saved layouts and dashboards, histogram definitions, math channels, smoothing, and your preferences.

Uninstalling leaves that folder alone, so reinstalling gets you back what you had. Anything that synced to your account is on the server too, so a new PC only needs a sign-in.

This page is part of the manual built into BigData for Windows, where the same topics are available offline with F1.