# Connecting a Windows client

## Goal

This documentation has the goal of showing how a user can use the official Windows [Tailscale](https://tailscale.com) client with `headscale`.

!!! info "Instructions on your headscale instance"

    An endpoint with information on how to connect your Windows device
    is also available at `/windows` on your running instance.

## Installation

Download the [Official Windows Client](https://tailscale.com/download/windows) and install it.

## Configuring the headscale URL

Open a Command Prompt or Powershell and use Tailscale's login command to connect with your headscale instance (e.g
`https://headscale.example.com`):

```
tailscale login --login-server <YOUR_HEADSCALE_URL>
```

Follow the instructions in the opened browser window to finish the configuration.

## Troubleshooting

### Unattended mode

By default, Tailscale's Windows client is only running when the user is logged in. If you want to keep Tailscale running
all the time, please enable "Unattended mode":

- Click on the Tailscale tray icon and select `Preferences`
- Enable `Run unattended`
- Confirm the "Unattended mode" message

See also [Keep Tailscale running when I'm not logged in to my computer](https://tailscale.com/kb/1088/run-unattended)

### Failing node registration

If you are seeing repeated messages like:

```
[GIN] 2022/02/10 - 16:39:34 | 200 |    1.105306ms |       127.0.0.1 | POST     "/machine/redacted"
```

in your `headscale` output, turn on `DEBUG` logging and look for:

```
2022-02-11T00:59:29Z DBG Machine registration has expired. Sending a authurl to register machine=redacted
```

This typically means that the registry keys above was not set appropriately.

To reset and try again, it is important to do the following:

1. Shut down the Tailscale service (or the client running in the tray)
2. Delete Tailscale Application data folder, located at `C:\Users\<USERNAME>\AppData\Local\Tailscale` and try to connect again.
3. Ensure the Windows node is deleted from headscale (to ensure fresh setup)
4. Start Tailscale on the Windows machine and retry the login.