Download the binaries from: https://github.com/rgl/elasticsearch-setup/releases ------ This directory contains the files needed to create the elasticsearch setup program for Windows. You first need to install Unicode Inno Setup from: http://www.jrsoftware.org/isdl.php#stable NB Get the isetup-5.5.4-unicode.exe file. And then, only, msys from MinGW by following the guide at: http://blog.ruilopes.com/post/2143557964/sane-shell-environment-on-windows And then install the TDM64 bundle from: http://tdm-gcc.tdragon.net/ And then install PhantomJS from: http://phantomjs.org/ And add everything into your PATH. You should now be ready to build the setup with: make It should create two files with the name pattern: elasticsearch-VERSION-setup-NN-bit.exe These are the only files that need to be redistributed. NB If the above step complains about a missing unzip.exe or wget.exe, you can install them with: mingw-get install msys-unzip mingw-get install msys-wget The setup will do the following when installing the application: * install all files into Program Files (the user can change the actual location) * create the elasticsearch Windows account (with Logon as service privilege) * install a Windows Service to automatically start elasticsearch (run as the elasticsearch account) at boot (but has to be manually started after install...). * grant the elasticsearch account: * read permissions to the "config" directory. * full permissions to the "data" and "logs" directories. * create a bunch of Start Menu entries (link to home page, guide, etc). If you need to modify any service related setting (e.g. the maximum memory used by the JVM) edit the file: lib\elasticsearchw-update.cmd And then run it in a Administrator Command Prompt. ------ The setup uses SetACL.exe to grant NTFS file permissions to the elasticsearch account. SetACL can be download from: http://helgeklein.com/setacl/ The setup uses procrun.exe to launch elasticsearch as a Windows service. procrun is included in the Apache Commons Daemon project available at: http://commons.apache.org/daemon/