SmartScreen will ask once.Here is why, and what runs.

Installing

1. Download the Windows build. It is x64, for Windows 10 and 11.
2. Run the .exe. Windows SmartScreen will say it prevented an unrecognised app from starting.
3. Choose More info, then Run anyway.

Why SmartScreen warns

The installer is not code-signed with an EV certificate, and SmartScreen's reputation score is built from how many people have already installed a given signed binary. A new unsigned installer has no reputation by definition, so it warns. It is a statement about how many downloads a file has, not about what the file does.

If you would rather verify than trust, every release publishes SHA-256 hashes. In PowerShell:

certutil -hashfile HuddleOwl-win-x64.exe SHA256

Compare that to the value in SHA256SUMS.txt on the release page.

What Windows gets today

Everything about the product except where the models run:

• Live transcription and live coaching cues, with the quote behind each one
• Both sides of the call captured through loopback audio, with no bot joining
• The full scored post-meeting brief, the follow-up email and the calendar export
• Stealth mode, imports of existing recordings, and full-text search

What it does not get yet

The on-device engines are macOS only today. On Windows you point HuddleOwl at a cloud model of your choosing, using your own key, billed to you directly by that provider. Your transcript goes to the provider you picked, from your machine, and never through us, because there is no server of ours for it to pass through. That is a real difference from the Mac build, where the whole thing can run with the wifi off, and this page will say so the day it changes and not before.

The engines guide covers how to point it at a provider, or at your own endpoint.

Capturing the other side

Windows uses loopback audio, which needs no extra permission and no picker: HuddleOwl captures what your speakers are playing. Nothing joins the meeting and nobody on the call sees anything different.