Fellow offers a Microsoft Installer (MSI) package for customers looking to deploy the Fellow for Windows desktop app across their organization. The Fellow Deployment MSI package natively supports all msiexec commands and is suggested for customers requiring the deployment of Fellow to a large number of machines. If you don't need to deploy Fellow on a large scale, you can download the desktop app.
Fellow exclusively supports the per-user mode, which employs a specific deployment and update mechanism. Please read the following information carefully before proceeding.
MSI for Per-User Deployment
The main Fellow for Windows desktop application does not require administrative privileges to install, as it is a user-level installer.
Our MSI package for per-user deployment essentially installs a deployment tool which installs the Fellow for Windows desktop app for each user on next login to the machine. The deployment tool will only install Fellow for Windows if it has not been previously installed for the user who is currently logging into the machine.
Note: Each user's Fellow installation will automatically update independently of the deployment tool.
What do I download?
⚙️ 64-bit MSI Deployment Tool (requires admin privileges)
🖥️ 64-bit Windows installer (no admin required)
🍏 Fellow for Mac (Apple silicon)
🍎 Fellow for Mac (Universal)
Key Considerations
Fellow for Windows is installed in %LOCALAPPDATA%. Although the Fellow Deployment tool is installed machine-wide, Fellow for Windows itself is not.
Fellow is installed upon user login.
Automatic updates are downloaded and installed for every member (no maintenance needed)
Each user will have their own version of Fellow.
If a user hasn't logged-in in a while, the Fellow app may go out of date, but it will update itself the next time it runs for that user.
Fellow won't launch on startup on the first login (known issue)
Uninstalling the MSI installer doesn't remove the Fellow app from user accounts.
A user who has explicitly uninstalled Fellow will not have it auto-installed on next login.
Installer Usage
Install the Microsoft Installer package (requires Administrator privileges)
⚙️ Download the 64-bit MSI Installer for per-user deploymentLog out of your Windows user account.
Log back into your Windows user account.
After a minute or two, the Fellow app icon will be show up on the Desktop and Start Menu.
Still using 32-bit Windows? Unfortunately, we do not support 32-bit Windows for our desktop application, but you can still use our web application through your browser.
Frequently Asked Questions
Do we need to update the Fellow deployment tool when using the per-user deployment MSI and Fellow auto-updates?
For current users: No need, as the Fellow app automatically updates itself.
For new users: The MSI deployment tool installs the Fellow app version that is bundled with it. The app will update automatically upon launching, but the update will prompt the user to restart the app. To provide a good user experience for your users, we recommended keeping the MSI version as current as possible.
Why is Fellow still installed for all our users after uninstalling the per-user deployment MSI?
Uninstalling the MSI only removes the deployment tool, and Fellow will not install for new users logging into the computer. However, users who have already installed Fellow through the deployment tool need to manually uninstall the app.
To automate this process, you can call %LOCALAPPDATA%\Fellow\Update.exe --uninstall -s in the user's context, e.g. in a logon script.