Amp for Windows

Amp for Windows

Experimental. Requires Windows 10 version 1809 or later, or Windows 11.

Download for Windows

Open the downloaded file, and App Installer installs Amp.

The app checks for updates each time it starts and installs them the next time you start it.

The Windows app is experimental. It has the basics you need to use Amp in its own window, and it does less than the Mac app. Expect missing features and rough edges. If you hit a bug, send a bug report from the app. Bug reports from the app include your Windows version, so we can tell them apart from browser reports.

Install

Click Download for Windows above and open the file you get. Windows installs the version for your PC, so the app runs natively on both Intel or AMD (x64) and Arm PCs. Amp checks for a new version each time you start it, downloads it in the background, and installs it the next time you start the app.

If you cannot install the app this way, download the portable zip for your PC instead: x64 or Arm. Unzip it anywhere and run Amp.exe. The portable app checks for updates when it starts and every few hours, and installs them the next time you start it. If you run the x64 zip on an Arm PC, its next update switches it to the Arm version.

What Works

• Threads and orbs. Everything you can do on ampcode.com works in the app. Start threads that run in orbs or on your runners.
• Notifications. The app shows a Windows notification when a thread is ready for your next message, and when someone mentions you or asks for access to one of your threads. Click the notification to open the thread. When someone asks you to share a thread or to turn on multiplayer, the notification also has Share with Workspace or Allow Multiplayer and Decline buttons, which answer without opening Amp. To turn notifications off, open Windows Settings, go to System > Notifications, and turn off Amp.
• Unread count on the taskbar. Like the Mac app’s Dock badge, the Amp button on the taskbar shows how many threads have an unread dot in the sidebar, such as threads that finished and are waiting for your next message. When a thread starts waiting for you while Amp is in the background, the taskbar button flashes until you switch to Amp. The count and the flashing stay off while notifications are off for Amp. To turn them off for every app, open Windows Settings, go to Personalization > Taskbar > Taskbar behaviors, and turn off Show badges on taskbar apps or Show flashing on taskbar apps.
• System tray. Amp has an icon in the system tray with your recent threads (see System Tray), and can start when you sign in to Windows (see Start at Login).
• Taskbar jump list. Right-click Amp on the taskbar to start a new thread, open Puck, call Puck, or open one of your recent threads. A colored dot marks a thread that is working, unread, waiting for you, or failed. If Amp is closed, it starts and opens what you chose. To use the jump list while Amp is closed, right-click Amp on the taskbar and choose Pin to taskbar.
• Share to Puck. Choose Share on a file in File Explorer, or share from another app such as Microsoft Edge, and pick Amp to send text, links, images, or files to Puck. Add a message if you want, then send. Puck can start an agent, open a thread, or answer a question about it. Only the app you install with Download for Windows is in the share menu: Windows offers shares only to installed apps, so the portable zip cannot receive them.
• Passkeys. When Amp asks you to confirm an action with a passkey, or when you add a passkey in Settings > Security, Windows opens its own passkey window. Use Windows Hello, a security key, or your phone, just as you would in Microsoft Edge.

Puck

Puck opens in the sidebar unless you choose otherwise. To open it in a window of its own instead, open the window menu (below) and choose Open Puck in Separate Window. You can put that window beside your work or on another display. It reads the page your main window is showing, so you can still say “this thread” or “this project”. A thread you open from the Puck window opens in your main window, and any other page in a window of its own, leaving the chat where it is. Either way, right-click Puck in the sidebar and choose Open in Separate Window or Dock in Sidebar to open it in that place.

Press Ctrl+/ in the Puck window to put it away. When Puck opens in its own window, press it again in another Amp window to bring the Puck window back.

See Meet Puck for what to ask.

System Tray

Amp puts its icon in the system tray at the end of the taskbar, like the Mac app’s menu bar icon.

• Click the icon to bring Amp to the front.
• Right-click it to start a new thread, open or call Puck, mark all threads as read, or open one of your 10 most recent threads, pinned threads first. A colored dot marks a thread that is working, unread, waiting for you, or failed. While the menu is open, press a thread’s number (1 to 9, then 0) to open it. Press Ctrl+Alt+A to open the menu from any app (see Shortcuts from Any App).
• A dot on the icon means a thread in the menu is unread or waiting for you. It stays off while notifications are off for Amp.

When you close your last Amp window, Amp keeps running in the tray, so you still get notifications and the unread count. To quit, right-click the icon and choose Quit Amp. To quit when you close the last window instead, turn off Show in System Tray in App Settings or the window menu (below), which also removes the icon. Amp installs a downloaded update the next time it starts, so it updates once you quit it and start it again.

Windows may put the icon in the overflow area that opens from the arrow beside the tray. To keep it on the taskbar, drag it there, or open Windows Settings, go to Personalization > Taskbar > Other system tray icons, and turn on Amp.

Start at Login

To start Amp when you sign in to Windows, turn on Start at Login in App Settings, the window menu (below), or the menu of the tray icon. It is off until you turn it on. Amp then starts in the system tray without opening a window, or minimized on the taskbar if you turned off Show in System Tray.

You can also turn it on or off in Windows Settings under Apps > Startup, or in Task Manager under Startup apps. If you turned Amp off there, Amp asks you to turn it back on there too.

Shortcuts from Any App

These shortcuts work in every app, even while Amp is in the system tray:

• Ctrl+Alt+A opens the menu of the [tray icon](#system-tray).
• Ctrl+Alt+N starts a new thread. Press it again before you type to close the new thread and go back to the app you were in.
• Ctrl+Alt+P opens Puck. When Puck is in its own window and in front, it puts that window away.
• Ctrl+Alt+Shift+P calls Puck. Press it in front of Puck to end the call.

To change one, open App Settings, click the shortcut under Shortcuts from Any App, and press the keys you want. Press Backspace to turn it off, or Esc to keep it. Restore Defaults brings back the shortcuts above. Windows lets only one app use a shortcut, so if another app already uses one, Amp says so under it; choose other keys. Amp also leaves out keys that type a character on your keyboard, such as Ctrl+Alt+A for ą on a Polish keyboard.

Windows and Menus

To open the menu of an Amp window, right-click its title bar or press Alt+Space. Each window shows its own pages. When you close the last one, Amp keeps running in the system tray.

• New Thread ( Ctrl+N) starts a new thread in the window. In a Puck window it reads New Puck Thread and starts a new Puck chat.
• New Window ( Ctrl+Shift+N) opens another window, and New Puck Window opens another Puck window.
• Open Puck in Separate Window chooses where Puck opens (see Puck).
• Start at Login starts Amp in the system tray when you sign in to Windows (see Start at Login).
• Show in System Tray shows the tray icon and keeps Amp running there when you close its last window (see System Tray).
• Ctrl+, opens your personal settings and Ctrl+Shift+, opens workspace settings. From a Puck window, they open in your main window.
• App Settings opens the app’s own settings (see App Settings).
• Ctrl+Plus, Ctrl+-, and Ctrl+0 change the zoom level of every window.
• Keyboard Shortcuts opens the keyboard shortcuts list.

Amp remembers where your last window and your last Puck window were, and opens there next time.

Accounts

Each window shows one Amp account, so you can keep windows of different accounts side by side.

• Switch a window’s account. Click your avatar in the sidebar, choose Switch Account, and pick an account. Only that window changes; your other windows keep their accounts.
• Add an account. Choose Add Another Account in the same menu, or Add account in App Settings. Amp opens a new window where you sign in.
• Open a window for an account. In App Settings, click More options (…) next to the account and choose New Window.
• Sign out. Signing out of an account in one window signs it out in every window.

When your windows show more than one account, each window’s title ends with its account’s name. The first account in App Settings is your primary account: the jump list and the unread count on the taskbar show its threads, and Share to Puck sends to it. To choose another primary account, click More options next to it and choose Make Primary.

App Settings

Choose App Settings in the window menu, in the menu of the tray icon, or in the account menu under your avatar in the sidebar. It lists your accounts, each with a Personal Settings button that opens that account’s settings, such as its theme and appearance. It also has:

• Show in System Tray (see System Tray).
• Notifications, which shows whether Windows shows Amp’s notifications. Click it to change that in Windows Settings.
• Start at Login (see Start at Login).
• Open Puck, which chooses whether Puck opens in the sidebar or in a window of its own.
• Shortcuts from Any App (see Shortcuts from Any App).
• About, with the app’s version.

Go Back and Forward

Amp pages you open in the app open in its window. Links to these docs, the rest of the Amp website (such as Chronicle and pricing), and other sites open in your browser. To go back and forward in the app:

• Press Alt+Left and Alt+Right.
• Press the back and forward buttons on your mouse, or the Back and Forward keys on a keyboard that has them.
• Click the arrows at the top of the sidebar.
• Right-click the page and choose Back or Forward.

Open Threads from Links

Thread links (https://ampcode.com/threads/...) that you click in another app, such as Slack, open in the Windows app. If the app is already open, the thread opens in the window you used last. This works in the app you install with Download for Windows, not the portable zip. To turn it off, open Windows Settings, go to Apps > Apps for websites, and turn off Amp.

Links you click in a browser, such as Microsoft Edge or Chrome, reach the browser first. So do links in Outlook and Teams, which open them in Microsoft Edge unless you change Open hyperlinks from Outlook in or Link open preference in their settings under Files and links.

The first time a thread link from outside Amp reaches your browser on a Windows PC, the thread page asks whether to open threads in the Windows app:

• Open in Windows App sends this thread to the app, keeps the browser tab, and asks again next time.
• Always Open in Windows App sends this thread and every later thread link straight to the app.
• Dismissing the question keeps threads in the browser.

The choice is saved on your account for Windows PCs only, so it does not change what happens on a Mac or on your other computers. Change it any time with Open Threads in the Windows App in Settings > Appearance, in the browser or in the app.

With it on, a thread link from outside Amp never shows the thread in the browser. The tab shows Opening in the Amp App instead and closes once the app, signed in to the same account, shows the thread. If the browser asks whether to allow opening Amp, answer it first. When the app does not open within a few seconds, the page says so and offers Open in Browser, Download Amp for Windows, and Stop Opening in App, which turns the setting off. Links you open inside Amp, reloads, and threads the app sends back to the browser stay in the browser.

To send one thread to the app without changing the setting, click Open in Windows App in the thread header and let the browser open Amp. The browser tab keeps the thread. If the app does not open, Amp offers to download it.

Links in the app that leave it, such as Open in New Tab in a thread’s share dialog, open in your default browser. Thread links do too, instead of coming back to the app.

Deploy and Manage in Your Organization

IT admins can install the app silently with Microsoft Intune or another management tool, and control it with Group Policy or Intune settings.

Install With Intune

Each build ships as an MSIX package and as a portable zip, for x64 and Arm PCs. Both install without any prompt.

MSIX package (recommended). Download Amp-x64.msix or Amp-arm64.msix. In the Intune admin center, go to Apps > Windows > Create and choose Line-of-business app. Upload the package and assign it as Required. Set the install context to Device to install Amp for every user of the PC, or to User for the assigned users. The package is signed by Amp Frontier Corporation, so Windows needs no extra certificate.

A package that Intune installs does not update itself. To update it, download the package again and upload it to the same Intune app. Amp may stop supporting old versions, so update at least once a month.

To install the package without Intune, run one of these commands as an administrator:

# For every user of the PC, including users who sign in later
Add-AppxProvisionedPackage -Online -PackagePath .\Amp-x64.msix -SkipLicense
# For the current user only (no administrator needed)
Add-AppxPackage -Path .\Amp-x64.msix

Portable zip. Use the zip when your organization does not allow MSIX packages. Download Amp-windows-x64.zip or Amp-windows-arm64.zip and add it to Intune as a Windows app (Win32). Put the zip and this install.ps1 in a folder and wrap the folder with the Microsoft Win32 Content Prep Tool:

# install.ps1: installs Amp for every user of the PC
$target = "$env:ProgramFiles\Amp"
Get-Process Amp -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue | Where-Object Path -like "$target\*" | Stop-Process -Force
New-Item -ItemType Directory -Force $target | Out-Null
Expand-Archive -Force (Get-ChildItem $PSScriptRoot\Amp-windows-*.zip).FullName $target
$shortcut = (New-Object -ComObject WScript.Shell).CreateShortcut(
  "$env:ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\Amp.lnk")
$shortcut.TargetPath = "$target\Amp.exe"
$shortcut.Save()

In Intune, use these settings:

• Install command: powershell.exe -ExecutionPolicy Bypass -File install.ps1
• Uninstall command: powershell.exe -Command "Remove-Item -Recurse -Force \"$env:ProgramFiles\Amp\", \"$env:ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\Amp.lnk\""
• Install behavior: System
• Detection rule: the file %ProgramFiles%\Amp\Amp.exe exists

Users cannot write to Program Files, so the app cannot update itself there. Turn on Turn off automatic updates for the portable app (below) and deploy each update with Intune.

Settings

Amp reads its settings from the registry key Software\Policies\Amp, under HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE for the computer and HKEY_CURRENT_USER for a user. When both set the same value, the computer setting wins. Amp reads the settings when it starts.

When you set allowed email domains or workspaces, Amp checks the account each time it loads a page and shows the page only if the account is allowed. Another account sees a page that says the account is not allowed, with a button to sign out. Share to Puck checks the account the same way before it sends anything. Amp also turns off the web developer tools. These settings control the app on managed PCs. To control which accounts can use Amp anywhere, also require single sign-on for your workspace.

Group Policy and Intune templates. Download Amp-policy-templates.zip. It holds Amp.admx and en-US\Amp.adml.

• Group Policy. Copy Amp.admx to C:\Windows\PolicyDefinitions (or your domain’s central store) and Amp.adml to its en-US folder. The settings appear under Computer Configuration and User Configuration in Administrative Templates > Amp.
• Intune. Go to Devices > Configuration > Import ADMX, and upload Amp.admx and Amp.adml. After the import finishes, create a profile for Windows 10 and later with the Templates > Imported Administrative templates type, and find the settings under Amp.

You can also set the values directly, for example in a script:

$key = 'HKLM:\Software\Policies\Amp'
New-Item -Force $key | Out-Null
Set-ItemProperty $key AllowedSignInDomains 'example.com'
Set-ItemProperty $key DisableNotifications 1 -Type DWord

Known Limitations

These Mac app features are not in the Windows app yet:

• Using this PC as a runner for threads you start from other devices.
• The dictation and call shortcuts for Puck.