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Getting started on Windows

Install and create your vault

1. Download the installer from the download page and verify its SHA-256 checksum (shown beside the release).
2. Run the installer and open Keepsake.
3. Choose Create new vault, pick a strong password, and confirm it. The password never leaves your PC — it becomes your encryption key via Argon2id, so make it long rather than clever.
4. Print your Recovery Kit. Keepsake shows a 24-word phrase exactly once and offers a printable PDF with a QR code. This is the only way back in if you forget your password. Store it like cash.

Add your first documents

• Drag and drop any PDF or image onto the window, or use Add document.
• Keepsake's OCR reads each file on your PC and suggests a category, expiry date, document number and tags. Review the suggestions and save.
• Everything is encrypted with AES-256-GCM before it touches disk.

Recommended next steps

• Turn on Windows Hello in Settings for fingerprint/face unlock (your biometrics stay in Windows — Keepsake only receives a hardware-backed key).
• Or enrol a security key in Settings → Vault Security. A FIDO2 key you carry unwraps the vault key on any PC you plug it into, and it is the same credential the web app uses, so one key opens the vault on both. Neither Hello nor a key can be your only way in: enrolling is refused until you have a password or a Recovery Kit.
• Set your renewal country in Settings so expiry alerts come with the right renewal checklists.
• Set up sync if you also use Keepsake on your phone or in the browser.

The vault works completely offline. Nothing you do in this guide requires an account or an internet connection, except downloading the installer itself.

Language, digest and asking questions

• Settings -> Language switches the app between English and Urdu, using the same wording as the web and Android apps. Windows screens mirror right-to-left for Urdu. The choice is stored on this PC only, never in your vault, so it does not sync to your other devices.
• Any document -> Digest (Premium) pulls out the key facts and the document's own most important sentences. Every line is copied from the document, never rewritten. See Understanding a document quickly.
• Settings -> Ask your vault answers questions like how much is the council tax by quoting your own documents, with the source of every line. Nothing leaves the PC. See Asking your vault a question.

Screens opened after you change the language use it immediately; restart Keepsake to switch windows that are already open.

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