Installing

Three ways to get the app running. All three are self-contained: they carry their own .NET runtime, so there is nothing else to install first, and none of them contacts the internet.

Whichever you choose, your diary itself lives only in the vault file you create, wherever you decide to save it. Settings are stored inside the vault too, so the app keeps no configuration files of its own.

Windows installer#

Requires Windows 10 or 11, 64-bit. The installer puts the app in Program Files, so Windows will ask for administrator permission. The app itself runs as an ordinary user.

1. Download MyThoughtSafe-0.10.0-setup.exe from the download page.
2. Run it. If Windows shows “Windows protected your PC”, see the SmartScreen note below.
3. Accept the license. It’s short, and it allows any use, including commercial use.
4. Optionally tick Create a desktop shortcut. The installer adds a Start menu entry either way.
5. Finish, with Launch My Thought Safe ticked if you want to start right away.

The installer adds no services, scheduled tasks, background updaters or telemetry. Next, create your first vault.

About the SmartScreen warning#

This release isn’t code-signed yet. Windows treats unsigned downloads it hasn’t seen before with suspicion, whatever they contain. If you see the blue “Windows protected your PC” panel:

1. Check the file’s SHA-256 against the published value.
2. Click More info, then Run anyway.

Some antivirus products also flag the large AI engine libraries the app bundles. The checksum is your best evidence that the file is the published one.

Updating and uninstalling#

There is no automatic updater, by design. To update, download the new installer and run it over the old version. Your vaults aren’t touched, because they were never inside the program folder.

To uninstall, use Settings → Apps in Windows or the Uninstall My Thought Safe Start menu entry. This removes the program. Your vault files stay where you saved them, and you can delete them yourself if you mean to. An uninstall doesn’t remove %LOCALAPPDATA%\MyThoughtSafe, which exists only if the app ever wrote a crash log.

Windows portable zip#

The same app, with no installation.

1. Download MyThoughtSafe-0.10.0-win-x64-portable.zip.
2. Right-click it, choose Extract All…, and pick a new, empty folder. The zip has no top-level folder, so its files land directly where you extract it.
3. Run MyThoughtSafe.exe from that folder.

The folder contains a small file named MyThoughtSafe.portable. While it’s there, the app writes its one possible out-of-vault file, a crash log, beside the executable rather than into your user profile. Delete the marker if you’d prefer the normal location.

Extracted files keep Windows’ “downloaded from the internet” mark, so SmartScreen may ask once, just as with the installer.

Linux AppImage#

One file that runs on most 64-bit Linux desktops without installing anything or needing root.

chmod +x MyThoughtSafe-0.10.0-x86_64.AppImage
./MyThoughtSafe-0.10.0-x86_64.AppImage

Most desktop file managers also let you tick Allow executing file as program in the file’s properties and then double-click it.

Requirements#

On a minimal or server-style install, these commands add the commonly missing pieces:

# Debian / Ubuntu
sudo apt install libicu-dev libssl3 libfontconfig1 libx11-6 libgomp1 libfuse2

# Fedora / RHEL / Rocky / Alma
sudo dnf install libicu openssl-libs fontconfig libX11 libgomp fuse-libs

# Arch
sudo pacman -S icu openssl fontconfig libx11 gcc-libs fuse2

Package names and version suffixes vary between releases.

If it says “error loading libfuse.so.2”#

Many current distributions ship only FUSE 3, which AppImages can’t use. Either run it without FUSE:

./MyThoughtSafe-0.10.0-x86_64.AppImage --appimage-extract-and-run

or install the FUSE 2 compatibility library: sudo apt install libfuse2 (Ubuntu 22.04), libfuse2t64 (Ubuntu 24.04 and later), fuse-libs (Fedora), fuse2 (Arch).

Security keys on Linux#

Hardware security keys are optional. To use one, install libfido2: libfido2-1 on Debian/Ubuntu, libfido2 on Fedora, Arch and openSUSE. If it’s absent, the app simply doesn’t offer key unlock.

On a normal desktop login, systemd already gives you access to FIDO keys. If yours isn’t detected, add this udev rule, which grants the plugdev group access to any device that identifies itself as a FIDO key:

echo 'ACTION=="remove", GOTO="mythoughtsafe_fido_end"
SUBSYSTEM=="hidraw", ENV{ID_SECURITY_TOKEN}=="1", GROUP="plugdev", MODE="0660"
LABEL="mythoughtsafe_fido_end"' | sudo tee /etc/udev/rules.d/70-mythoughtsafe-fido2.rules
sudo udevadm control --reload-rules && sudo udevadm trigger

Make sure your user is in plugdev (sudo usermod -aG plugdev $USER, then log out and back in; if your distribution has no such group, create it first with sudo groupadd plugdev), unplug and replug the key, and check with ls -l /dev/hidraw*. The app never needs root.

Adding it to your applications menu#

The AppImage doesn’t integrate itself into your desktop, because that would mean writing files outside its folder. If you want a menu entry, a tool such as Gear Lever or AppImageLauncher can add one, or you can write a .desktop file yourself.

Next step#

The first time you start the app, it offers a short introduction and then helps you create your first vault.