Install Commander4j

Install Commander4j is step 3 of the Install Guide. It takes about five minutes. Have your installer file from Downloads ready.

Windows

Double-click the downloaded Commander4j_version_windows-x64_with_jre.exe. Windows may show a User Account Control prompt asking whether to allow the app to make changes: click Yes.

The installer opens with a welcome page. Click Next.

Read the licence agreement (Commander4j is free software under the GNU General Public License v3), select I accept the agreement and click Next.

Choose where to install. The default, C:\Commander4j, is fine. Click Next.

Choose the install type. The rule:

Full if this is the only computer, or the server that other PCs will connect to. Full includes the interface service for ERP messages and the Clone4j database-copy tool.
Workstation for every other PC. It installs just the application and Setup4j.

Click Next.

The Start Menu folder is called Commander4j. Leave it, unless you are installing a second copy on the same PC, in which case give it a different name. Click Next.

The files are copied.

Click Finish. The Start menu now has a Commander4j folder containing the Commander4j application and the Setup4j tool (plus Clone4j on a Full install).

Next step: Setup4j.

macOS

Open the downloaded .dmg file. A window shows the Commander4j folder and an Applications shortcut. Drag the folder onto Applications.
Open your Applications folder, then the Commander4j folder inside it. It contains Commander4j, Setup4j and, on the full install, Clone4j.
The first time you open Setup4j or Commander4j, macOS refuses because the installer is not signed with Apple. Right-click (or Control-click) the app and choose Open, then click Open again in the warning. On macOS 15 and later you may instead need to go to System Settings, Privacy & Security, scroll down and click Open Anyway. You only have to do this once per app.

Next step: Setup4j.

Linux

The Linux installer does not include Java. Install Java 25 first; the Azul Zulu JDK is recommended. Then, in a terminal:

chmod +x Commander4j_version_linux.sh
sudo ./Commander4j_version_linux.sh

Follow the same screens as the Windows installer. Commander4j installs to /opt/Commander4j by default (or ~/Commander4j without sudo), with launcher scripts for Commander4j and Setup4j in that folder.

Next step: Setup4j.

Installing over an older version

Running a newer installer on a PC that already has Commander4j offers to update the existing installation in place. Your database connections are kept. Afterwards, run Setup4j and click AUTO Update DB so the database matches the new version. See Upgrading for the details and the screenshots.