Install on Windows
Install from the Microsoft Store, launch the application for the first time, and choose a design mode.
SolarLayout Desktop is a Windows application, installed from the Microsoft Store. That is the route these pages document: open the Store on the application's listing, install it, launch it. Everything after that happens on your own machine.
If you are not sure whether your PC has the Store, start at the download page, solarlayout.app/downloads/solarlayout. It asks one question about your PC and takes you to the right place.
Installation does not need access. The application opens, and every panel, field and menu is there to look at. Generating a layout, every export, and the SLD and BOM tools are the things that need it, so activation is the step that follows this page.
What the Store gives you
The Store is not only a download page. It changes three things that matter on a managed or corporate PC:
| What it means for you | |
|---|---|
| Microsoft signs the package | The copy you install is the one the publisher submitted, verified by Microsoft rather than by you. |
| Microsoft hosts and delivers it | Nothing is fetched from a third-party download site, and there is no installer to run and answer questions in. |
| Store applications are exempt from SmartScreen warnings | You will not see the "unrecognised app" prompt that Windows raises for downloaded installers, so there is nothing to click past. |
Updates come the same way — Microsoft delivers them. See Updates and reinstalling.
The publisher
The listing is published by Rensaar. Check the publisher name on the listing page before you install. It is the one thing on the page that tells you you are looking at the right application rather than a similarly named one.
System requirements
| Requirement | What is needed |
|---|---|
| Windows version | Windows 10 version 1809 or later, or Windows 11 |
| Architecture | 64-bit (x64). A 32-bit or Arm machine cannot run it |
The Store enforces both, so a machine below that floor is not offered the application at all — you will see no Get button rather than a failed install.
Beyond that, what matters is the screen rather than the processor:
- A display wide enough to show the input panel and the plot side by side. The window is built around that arrangement — the panel of settings on the left, the plant drawing on the right — and a narrow screen makes both cramped. A wide or high-resolution monitor is worth more here than a fast processor.
- An internet connection only for weather data and elevation data. Both are optional, and both are used only when you ask for them. Layout generation, drawing, editing and every export run without a connection.
Large plants ask more of the machine than small ones, and enabling cable calculation is the slowest step on a large or complex layout. Nothing else in the application is sensitive to the hardware in the same way.
Find the listing
The download page's Get it from the Microsoft Store button opens the Store on the listing directly. Or open the Store yourself and search:
Open the Microsoft Store
It is installed on every supported Windows PC. Press Start, type Microsoft Store, and open it.
Search for the application by name
Type the application name into the Store's search box. Nothing else is needed — no product code, no redemption link.
Check the publisher reads Rensaar
The publisher name sits under the application name on the listing page, alongside the install button.
- What it shows
- The Microsoft Store app open on the SolarLayout Desktop listing, with the publisher name and the Get / Install button visible.
- How to get there
- Open the Microsoft Store and search for SolarLayout Desktop. Capture before installing so the button reads Get or Install.
- Callouts to add
- Outline the publisher name and the Get button.
Install it
Click Get or Install. The Store downloads and installs the application; there are no options to choose and no components to select.
When it finishes, the button on the listing changes to Open.
- What it shows
- The same listing once installation has finished — the button now reads Open.
- How to get there
- Immediately after the install completes, before launching the app.
- Callouts to add
- Outline the Open button.
Launch it
Use Open on the listing, or find the application in the Start menu — press Start and type the first few letters of its name.
- What it shows
- The Windows Start menu with SolarLayout Desktop shown as a result.
- How to get there
- Press Start and type the first few letters of the app name.
The first launch
The application does not open straight into the main window. A window appears first, offering four cards, and you pick one before anything else happens. It appears at every launch, not only the first.
The four cards are the two mounting types crossed with the two electrical topologies:
| Mounting | Electrical | Equipment chain on the card |
|---|---|---|
| Fixed Tilt | String Inverter | Modules → MMS-Table → String Inverter → ICR |
| Fixed Tilt | Central Inverter | Modules → MMS-Table → SMB → Central Inverter |
| Single Axis Tracker | String Inverter | Modules → Tracker MMS → String Inverter → ICR |
| Single Axis Tracker | Central Inverter | Modules → Tracker MMS → SMB → Central Inverter |
MMS is the module mounting structure; SMB is a string monitoring box; ICR is an inverter control room. The choice decides which input groups you are shown and how the plant is put together, so it is a design decision rather than a preference — Choosing a design mode covers which to pick.
If you chose wrongly, you do not need to restart: File ▸ Move to String / Central Window… moves the session to the other electrical topology.
Once you have picked a card, the main window opens: the input panel on the left, an empty plot area on the right, the toolbar above it and an empty summary table below. The toolbar also carries an access-status chip — on a fresh install it reads "● No active access" with a Get Free Access button right beside it, so you can activate without opening a menu — plus a Docs button, and the app version is shown in the status bar at the bottom of the window. See The main window for what each part of it is.
What to do next
Generate Layout does nothing until this device has active access — and neither do the exports, the SLD or the BOM tools. Everything else — loading a boundary file, reading and changing every input, opening the menus — works without it. Activate the device before you plan to design anything.
Activation happens online, once per device, and there is no licence file at any point — nothing to request, receive, load or keep safe. Open Help ▸ License / Subscription… and click Get Free Access; the same button sits beside the access-status chip in the toolbar. Your browser opens on the activation page for this device. Finish there, switch back, and the window confirms it by itself.