# Install Actual Budget - Open Source Finance Management - on Windows
Author: i12bretro
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## What is Actual Budget?

> Actual is a local-first personal finance tool. It is 100% free and open-source, written in NodeJS, it has a synchronization element so that all your changes can move between devices without any heavy lifting. -https://github.com/actualbudget/actual

## Installing Actual Budget

1. Log into the Windows device
2. Download the latest Actual Budget release Download
3. Download NodeJS 16 Download
4. Download Git for Windows Download
5. Download Microsoft Visual C++ Download
6. Install Microsoft Visual C++
7. Install Git for Windows, accepting all the defaults
8. Install NodeJS, accepting all the defaults
9. Extract the downloaded Actual Budget files
10. Rename the extracted folder actualbudget
11. Cut the actualbudget folder to a location it can safely run from, C:\Apps\actualbudget in this example
12. Right click the Start button > Settings > System > About
13. Click the Advanced system settings option
14. Click the Environment Variables...
15. Edit the System Path variable
16. Click the New button
17. Add the Git for Windows \bin directory (ie C:\Program Files\Git\bin)
18. Click OK to all open dialog windows
19. Click on the Start menu > type cmd > Right click on Command Prompt > Run as administrator
20. Run the following commands in the Command Prompt window
    # change directory to actualbudget, C:\Apps\actualbudget in this example
    cd C:\Apps\actualbudget
    # update npm
    npm install -g npm
    # install yarn
    npm install -g yarn
    # fix dependencies
    yarn install
    # run actual
    yarn start
21. Open a web browser and navigate to http://DNSorIP:3001
22. Click the Don't use a server link
23. Click Start Fresh
24. Welcome to Actual Budget

Source: https://actualbudget.org/docs/install/local/