--- title: "Installation of V-Ray Standalone from a .zip File" canonical: "https://documentation.chaos.com/space/VNS/115605590/Installation%20of%20V-Ray%20Standalone%20from%20a%20.zip%20File" format: markdown --- This page describes how to set up your local system so that it loads the files for the correct version. The notes here are for the Windows, Linux, and macOS operating systems. > ⚠️ Starting with **V-Ray 6**, the Portable Installation replaces the zip builds. *Please visit the **[Portable Installation page](https://docs-chaos.atlassian.net/wiki/spaces/VNS/pages/115605780)** to find out more*. > Macro (ui-button) ## **Overview** --- Installing V-Ray Standalone from a .zip file provides several advantages over the regular installer: - The ZIP installation allows setting a custom environment when starting each Standalone instance. In comparison, running the regular installation multiple times overwrites the V-Ray environment variables. - The ZIP installation can be used to run V-Ray Standalone from an arbitrary location or even a network drive. That way, multiple users can start V-Ray Standalone using just a script that sets up the environment variables without the need to run local installations. - Upgrading a ZIP installation is a lot easier too, as you don't need to run the installer on every user's computer. - The ZIP installation allows for quickly switching between different V-Ray versions without reinstalling it. ## **Required Steps to Run V-Ray** --- To run a ZIP installation, you will need to: 1. Unpack the ZIP file to a location of your choice 2. Set up the environment variables needed to run V-Ray Standalone 3. Set up your license 4. Run V-Ray Standalone > ✅ An easy way to complete the environment set up and run V-Ray Standalone is with a custom shell or bat script that sets the environment for running the application instance. These steps are further discussed in the sections below with examples. > ⚠️ It is not recommended to place the unzipped files in the same directory as the installation. ## **Unpacking the ZIP file** --- Extract the contents of the relevant *.zip* file into a suitable folder. Below is a step-by-step guide: > Macro (ui-tabs) > > > Macro (legacy-content) > > > Macro (legacy-content) > > > Macro (legacy-content) ## **Environment Setup** --- Before you run V-Ray Standalone, you need to set up an environment. There are some specific steps to consider. The license setup is the last requirement, as V-Ray needs to be instructed where to look for a valid license. Please read the sections below for more information and examples. > Macro (ui-tabs) > > > Macro (legacy-content) > > > Macro (legacy-content) > > > Macro (legacy-content) ** ** ## **Notes** --- > Macro (anchor) 1.**VRAY_AUTH_CLIENT_FILE_PATH** needs to point to the folder that contains the *vrlclient.xml*  file that holds the V-Ray license server settings (IP address and port number). Alternatively, using the tool to set or change your license settings will create the *vrlclient.xml* file for you at a default location and there will be no need to explicitly define its location the VRAY_AUTH_CLIENT_FILE_PATH variable. However, it might be useful to use the variable to define per-user license settings. > ℹ️ Please note that this environment variable is optional. If nothing is specified, the default auth client file path is used. For the case where using the environment variable is the best option for you and you need to create the *vrlclient.xml* file manually, the example below shows what it should contain: > Macro (rw-ui-expands-macro) > > > Macro (rw-expand) > > ```xml >   > > > 10.0.0.100 > 30304 > > 30304 > > 30304 > > > > > ```   > Macro (anchor) 2.Starting with nightly build set **28989** (dated **2019-03-12**) and later, V-Ray Next adopts the new style of directory naming, where bin/ is used instead of bin/x64/vc14 or bin/linux_x64/clang-gcc-4.8; all release and stable builds at this time use the classic style. Any new batch files and shell scripts should be designed to accommodate the new style too, as upcoming updates will gradually adopt the new directory layout. If you want to use any additional tools like the irradiance map viewer, the VRIMG to OpenEXR converter etc., then also add to the **PATH** environment variable *vray_builds/my_version/vray/bin*. > ⚠️ Please note that by default the V-Ray installer sets the TdrLevel (that is GPU timeout detection and recovery) to 8 (seconds of delay). Installing V-Ray from .zip may require the user to manually change this registry entry and should optionally have the full path to the registry.