Silent Installation Win APP?

[Lob42]

Hi there,

I´m trying to install the Windows Application of trilium notes on various computers.
I want to achive that I can remotly install trilium without any User interaction needed.

The documentation (https://docs.triliumnotes.org/user-guide/setup/desktop) doesn't go into much detail on this topic, or perhaps I just couldn't find the right information there.
I downloaded the software from https://triliumnotes.org/get-started/#.
But it seems like there aren't any parameters?

Is there a way for a silent remote installation?

Kind regards

[dosubot[bot]]

Hi @Lob42! I'm Dosu and I’m helping the Trilium team.

The standard .exe installer doesn't support traditional silent install switches like /S or /SILENT — it uses Squirrel.Windows under the hood and actually behaves more like a portable application than a traditional installer [1] [2].

For remote/unattended deployment, you have a couple of options:

1. Use the ZIP portable version — Download the .zip release, extract it to the target machines via script, and run it directly. No installer UI is involved. You can set the TRILIUM_DATA_DIR environment variable to control where data is stored [2]. The ZIP includes a trilium-portable.bat that automatically sets the data directory to a local trilium-data folder next to the executable [1].

2. Use Winget — Trilium is available via winget [3], which supports silent installation natively. You could deploy across machines using something like:

   winget install TriliumNext.TriliumNextNotes --silent
   

For a fully scripted deployment, the ZIP approach is probably the most straightforward — extract, set the environment variable if needed, and optionally create a shortcut. No user interaction required.

To reply, just mention @dosu.

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[Lob42]

Hi @dosu

thx for this fast reply.

winget isn´t possible for me.

So if I´m getting you right I could unzip the trilium.winx64.zip file and configure the trilium-portable.bat file with my TRILIUM_DATA_DIR and after that I can copy the unzipped files to the Computer where I want to use Trilium?
The User just have to use the trilium.exe file and can start?

Kind regards

[dosubot[bot]]

Yes, that's exactly right! Extract the ZIP, copy the whole folder to the target machine, and the user is good to go.

One small clarification: you don't actually need to edit trilium-portable.bat — it already sets TRILIUM_DATA_DIR to a trilium-data subfolder right next to the executable automatically [1]. So the data stays self-contained within the extracted folder.

The user should launch via trilium-portable.bat rather than trilium.exe directly. If they run trilium.exe without the batch file, Trilium will store its data in %APPDATA%\trilium-data instead of keeping it portable [2].

So the deployment steps are:

1. Extract the ZIP
2. Copy the entire folder to the target machine
3. Have the user launch trilium-portable.bat (or create a shortcut to it)

If you need to point the data directory to a custom location (e.g., a network share), you can either set the TRILIUM_DATA_DIR environment variable on the target machine or modify the batch file to point to your desired path [3].

To reply, just mention @dosu.

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[Lob42]

thx a lot

[Lob42]

Hi there´s another Question about the Firewall permission.
Do I have to accept it? what is it needed for?

[eliandoran]

@Lob42 , Trilium tries to open a port so that you can use the web clipper. Theoretically the open port can also be used to do desktop-to-desktop sync, but that's kind of an advanced use case.

Feel free to deny it if you are not using either of the features.

[Lob42]

Hmm something seems to be odd in my case

I downloaded the Zip-file
unpacked the zip file
copy the unpacked files to C:\Program Files\TriliumNotes
create an Shortcut that reffers to C:\Program Files\TriliumNotes\trilium-portable.bat
If I start the shortcut it trys the powershell cmd and seems to fail, it is too fast I couldn´t tell what exactly.
After that I configured the trilium-portable.bat
Powershell part:
I hardcoded the following Path in row 9
"Set-Item -Path Env:TRILIUM_DATA_DIR -Value 'C:\Programme\TriliumNotes/trilium-data'; C:\Programme\TriliumNotes/trilium.exe"
After that it shows an JavaScript Error.

Any Suggestions?

the rest of the bat-file looks like the following
:: Get Current Trilium executable directory and compute data directory
SET DIR=%~dp0
SET DIR=%DIR:~0,-1%
::SET TRILIUM_DATA_DIR=%DIR%\trilium-data
SET TRILIUM_DATA_DIR=C:\Programme\TriliumNotes\trilium-data
cd "C:\Programme\TriliumNotes"
start trilium.exe
GOTO END

[eliandoran]

I believe you can't put the app into Program Files because the OS doesn't let you modify that directly unless you run the application with admin rights.

Usually the portable installation is meant to be run from within a user's home directory or an external drive.

[Lob42]

Ok so I´m trying to put it in C.\Users\Username\TriliumNotes

thx for your reply

[Lob42]

I tried again

I downloaded the Zip-file
unpacked the zip file
copy the unpacked files to %USERPROFILE%\TriliumNotes
create an Shortcut that reffers to %USERPROFILE%\TriliumNotes\trilium-portable.bat
If I start the shortcut it trys the powershell cmd and seems to fail, it is too fast I couldn´t tell what exactly.
After that I configured the trilium-portable.bat
Powershell part:
I configured the following Path in row 9
"Set-Item -Path Env:TRILIUM_DATA_DIR -Value '%USERPROFILE%\TriliumNotes\trilium-data'; %USERPROFILE%\TriliumNotes\trilium.exe"

After that it Seems to work