Installation

Overview

realvirtual CONNECT is a single Windows executable. There is no installer, no service to register and no admin rights are required for a normal installation. Starting it places an icon in the system tray and opens one listener on port 5100 that serves the REST API, the WebSocket signal channel and the bundled realvirtual WEB HMI.

Requirements

Operating system	Windows 10 or Windows 11, 64-bit
Runtime	None — the published build is self-contained
Network	The PC must reach the controller (PLC, robot controller, MQTT broker)
Port	5100, free on the local machine

Place the gateway on a PC inside the machine network — an IPC, an edge PC or an engineering laptop. The browser that shows the HMI can be the same PC or any other device in the network.

Download and first start

1. Download the gateway from web.realvirtual.io/download/realvirtual-Connect.exe — or use the Download realvirtual CONNECT button that the CONNECT panel of any realvirtual WEB viewer shows while it has no gateway to talk to. Both deliver the same current build.
2. Start it where it is, or put it in a folder you can write to first — either way, keep it somewhere writable: self-update needs a writable program directory. Accepting the Start-menu entry in step 4 takes care of this on its own.
3. Windows SmartScreen may ask for a confirmation on first run — the executable is code-signed by realvirtual GmbH, which the dialog shows under More info.
4. A window reports that the gateway is running and where its data goes. Close it, or let it add a Start-menu entry first.
5. A tray icon appears. Right-click it and choose Open realvirtual WEB, or open http://localhost:5100 in a browser.
6. Register once to activate the free tier — see licensing.

The first-start window

This window appears once, on a new installation, and answers the three questions a first start raises: what is running, how to reach it, and where its data goes.

CONNECT is portable. It installs nothing, registers no service and leaves nothing behind except its data folder. The tray icon is where you stop it again.

The one question it asks is the Start-menu entry. Accepting it copies the executable to %LOCALAPPDATA%\realvirtual\CONNECT\realvirtual-Connect.exe and links there rather than to the file you started — so the entry keeps working after you clear your Downloads folder. The file you started stays where it is; nothing is moved. Not now skips the entry entirely and changes nothing on disk.

Note

The window is reachable again at any time through Getting Started… in the tray menu — including the Start-menu entry, for someone who said Not now on day one.

The tray menu

The tray icon is the local status display and the only place with process-level switches. The menu has one reading order: every status line first, then the actions, and the dots say whether anything needs attention — green is running, amber is a state you should look at, grey is off or idle.

The picture shows a fresh installation with nothing configured yet: no model, no interface, no signals, and the free tier. Two lines already ask for a decision — remote access is blocked because no API key is set, and AI diagnosis is off until an LLM is configured.

Status lines

Entry	What it shows
realvirtual CONNECT v…	Version and build of this executable. Quote it in support requests
CONNECT gateway	Port and running state
Remote access	Appears only while the gateway is reachable from other machines with no API key configured — those clients are refused. Click it for the full explanation, and see remote access
realvirtual WEB	Where the HMI comes from — Delivered (embedded in this application) on a normal installation, or a separately running dev server. Its submenu holds the data folder and, in development, the dev-server controls — see viewer delivery
Published models	The folder the gateway serves models from. Click to open it
Viewer	The address the HMI is reachable at. Click to open it
MCP server	Endpoint state, tool count, write access and connected MCP clients — see AI clients
AI Diagnosis	Index state, or the reason it is off — see AI diagnosis
License	Current tier and, on the free tier, how many of the allowed signals are in use — see licensing
Signals / Clients	How many signals the gateway serves and how many browsers are connected. This Clients count means viewers, not MCP clients

Actions

Entry	What it does
Open realvirtual WEB	Opens the HMI in the default browser
Open Health Page	Opens the gateway’s own status answer — the fastest check when something looks wrong
Open Documentation	Opens this documentation in the default browser
Getting Started…	Reopens the first-start window, including the Start-menu entry
Restart CONNECT	Restarts the gateway process, for example after a startup-only setting was changed. It takes everything in this executable with it; to restart only a dev server, use the realvirtual WEB entry
Profile	Switches between saved configuration profiles (saved in the viewer’s CONNECT panel). Switching hot-reloads the interfaces — the gateway is not restarted
Exit	Closes the gateway. In development mode the caption names what goes with it: a dev server CONNECT started is stopped too, while one that was already running when CONNECT started keeps running

Where CONNECT stores things

What	Location
Interfaces, signals and profiles	%PROGRAMDATA%\realvirtual\CONNECT\connect-config.json
Models, viewer settings, converted CAD, history state	%LOCALAPPDATA%\realvirtual\CONNECT\data (models/, settings.json)
The activated license	%PROGRAMDATA%\realvirtual\CONNECT — machine-global, it never follows a workspace
Process settings — port, API key, allowed origins	appsettings.json next to the executable

The tray menu shows both folders: Published models opens the model folder, and the data root sits in the submenu of the realvirtual WEB line.

Configuration is written atomically with a .bak backup. Changes take effect immediately: the affected interface restarts on its own, the gateway does not.

Process settings

appsettings.json holds the settings that are read at startup:

{
  "Urls": "http://0.0.0.0:5100",
  "AllowedOrigins": ["*"],
  "ApiKey": "",
  "Logging": { "LogLevel": { "Default": "Information" } }
}

Key	Purpose
Urls	Listen address. The default binds all network adapters, so the gateway is reachable from other machines — read remote access before leaving it that way
AllowedOrigins	Browser origins allowed to call the gateway (CORS)
ApiKey	Required from any caller that is not on the local machine. Empty disables the key

Running two gateways on one PC

Port 5100 is part of the client contract: .mcp.json, the HMI, the REST API and the signal channel all name it. CONNECT therefore refuses to start on a taken port instead of silently moving to another one. To run a second gateway deliberately, set the environment variable REALVIRTUAL_CONNECT_PORT for that instance and point its clients at the same port.

Autostart

To start the gateway with Windows, place a shortcut to the executable in the startup folder — press Win+R and enter shell:startup. CONNECT starts into the tray and reconnects its configured interfaces automatically.

Uninstalling

Delete the executable. To remove everything else as well, delete %LOCALAPPDATA%\realvirtual\CONNECT\ (data, and the copy of the executable if you accepted the Start-menu entry), %PROGRAMDATA%\realvirtual\CONNECT\ (configuration and license) and the realvirtual group in the Start menu. Nothing is written to the registry, and no service is left behind.

See also

• Licensing — Community registration and commercial licenses
• First connection — from a running gateway to live values in the browser
• Troubleshooting — the gateway does not start, the browser stays empty