Installation

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  XISO Explorer Troubleshooting & FAQ Release Notes

System Requirements

Component Minimum Requirement
Operating System Windows 10 (1809)+ / Windows 11, modern Linux, or macOS 12+
Runtime .NET 10.0 Runtime
Architecture x64 (64-bit) or ARM64
RAM 4 GB recommended
Storage Varies based on ISO collection size

Architecture Notes

Platform Architectures
Windows x64 and ARM64 — fully supported
Linux x64 and ARM64 — fully supported
macOS Intel (x64) and Apple Silicon (ARM64) — fully supported

Installing the Application

The application is fully portable — there is no installer and no registry footprint.

  1. Download the release archive for your platform from the Releases page.
  2. Extract the archive to any folder on a local drive (for example C:\Tools\XISOStudio or ~/Tools/XISOStudio).
  3. Run the application — XISOStudio.exe on Windows, or ./XISOStudio on Linux/macOS (run chmod +x XISOStudio once if needed).

Tip: Avoid placing the application inside C:\Program Files, /usr, or /Applications. Writing to protected locations requires elevation and can prevent the application from replacing originals, moving files, or writing its logs. See Troubleshooting — Access Denied.

Deployed Files

After extraction, the application folder contains:

File Purpose
XISOStudio / XISOStudio.exe The main application — a single framework-dependent executable with all conversion engines and the Avalonia/Skia rendering libraries bundled (the native libraries are extracted to a temporary folder on first run)
7za.exe / 7za_arm64.exe Windows builds only: bundled 7-Zip CLI fallback used when SharpCompress cannot extract an archive (complex/unsupported .7z or .zip compression methods). A system 7-Zip installation is auto-detected as well
7zz_linux_x64 / 7zz_linux_arm64 Linux builds only: bundled 7-Zip CLI fallback (static build, official 7-Zip release). A system 7z on PATH is used as a further fallback
7zz_osx macOS builds only: bundled 7-Zip CLI fallback (official universal arm64/x86-64 build). A system 7z from Homebrew on PATH is used as a further fallback
7-Zip-License.txt License of the bundled 7-Zip binaries (LGPL + unRAR restriction)
ReadMe.md, WhatsNew.md, LICENSE.txt Documentation and license, included in every release archive

Do not delete or rename the bundled helper files — the corresponding features will fail if they are missing. On Linux/macOS the bundled 7-Zip helper must be executable (chmod +x 7zz_* if your unzip tool did not restore the permission). On macOS, Gatekeeper may quarantine the unsigned helper; if archive extraction reports that 7-Zip is missing or cannot run, clear the quarantine flag with xattr -d com.apple.quarantine 7zz_osx.

.NET Runtime

The application targets .NET 10.0. If it fails to start with a message about a missing runtime:

  1. Download and install the .NET 10.0 Runtime for your platform and architecture from https://dotnet.microsoft.com/download/dotnet/10.0.
  2. Re-launch the application.

Alternatively, some releases may be published as self-contained builds that bundle the runtime — check the release notes on the Releases page.

First Run

On first start the application:

  1. Cleans orphaned temporary folders left behind by previous sessions or crashes (see Safety & Reliability below).
  2. Sends an anonymous usage statistic ping and, when enabled by the user, checks for a newer version on GitHub. If a new release exists, the application offers to open the download page. This can be declined; no personal data is collected.
  3. Opens the main window with the Convert tab active.

Upgrading

  1. Close any running instance of the application.
  2. Download the new release archive for your platform.
  3. Replace the contents of your existing application folder with the extracted files (or extract to a fresh folder).
  4. Your settings are not stored in the application folder, so replacing the folder is always safe.

Uninstalling

Simply delete the application folder. The application is portable and does not write to the registry or system folders.

Safety and Reliability

The installation is designed to be safe for long batch jobs:

  • Atomic operations — converted files are verified before originals are deleted (when Replace Originals is enabled).
  • Automatic cleanup — orphaned temporary files from interrupted jobs are removed at startup.
  • Fallback temp drives — when the system temp drive lacks space for archive extraction, alternative local drives are used automatically.
  • Network resilience — UNC paths and mapped drives are supported on Windows with automatic retry logic for transient failures.
  • Cloud-aware — files stored in OneDrive or similar sync folders are handled with exponential-backoff retries while they hydrate.

See the Usage Guide and Troubleshooting & FAQ for details.

XISO Studio documentation — also published as the GitHub wiki. Edit this page.