Install BioTrack

This page walks you through installing BioTrack on the site PC. It is for the person doing the installation. Check the requirements first.

One installer puts both parts of BioTrack on the PC: the desktop app and the BioTrack Collector Windows service. It does not ask for the terminal’s address; you connect the terminal afterwards in the setup wizard.

Install with the installer window

1. Sign in to Windows with the account the PC is normally used with. Standard and administrator accounts both work.

2. Get the installer for the PC’s architecture: biotrack-<version>-x64-setup.exe for Intel or AMD, biotrack-<version>-arm64-setup.exe for ARM64.

3. Run the installer and approve the Windows administrator prompt. If the publisher is not yet trusted on this PC, Windows may show an unknown-publisher warning at this point. That is expected for a first installation.

4. On the Set up attendance collection page, read the fingerprint shown under the checkbox.

   • If your organisation has already trusted the BioTrack publisher, leave Trust the BioTrack publisher on this PC unticked.
   • Otherwise, compare the SHA-256 fingerprint with the one you received through a separate, trusted channel. Only if they match, tick Trust the BioTrack publisher on this PC.

5. Continue. Setup checks its prerequisites before it changes anything, installs the collector service, and waits for the service to pass its health check. This can take a minute.

6. When you see The attendance service is installed and ready for setup, finish the installer.

7. Open BioTrack from the Start menu or the desktop shortcut. The setup wizard opens.

Setup uses the Windows account that is signed in to the session, even if a different administrator approves the prompt. That account can open BioTrack afterwards, as can Windows administrators.

What trusting the publisher does

Ticking the box adds the BioTrack certificate to the PC’s Trusted Root and Trusted Publishers stores for all users. Setup checks the installer’s signature and timestamp against the bundled certificate before adding it. Trust stays in place after an uninstall, so later signed versions install without asking again.

What the installer changes

• Installs BioTrack for all users under Program Files, with Start menu and desktop shortcuts.
• Creates the BioTrack Collector Windows service, which starts automatically with Windows and restarts itself if it stops unexpectedly.
• Creates a protected data folder at %ProgramData%\BioTrack and an encryption key for the database.
• Does not open the firewall yet. The terminal-only firewall rule is added during the setup wizard, after you approve it.
• Does not inspect or change BitLocker.

Silent installation

For managed deployment you can run setup without its window. Run it from the signed-in user’s desktop session, because setup picks the Windows account from that session.

• /S runs setup silently.
• For a first installation on a PC that does not trust the publisher yet, set BIOTRACK_SETUP_TRUST_PUBLISHER=1 after verifying the certificate fingerprint. Without it, the publisher must already be trusted.
• Wait for setup to exit and check the exit code. 0 means success; any other value means setup did not finish.

From an elevated PowerShell window in the user’s session:

$env:BIOTRACK_SETUP_TRUST_PUBLISHER = '1'   # only after verifying the fingerprint
$setup = Start-Process -FilePath '.\biotrack-<version>-x64-setup.exe' -ArgumentList '/S' -Wait -PassThru
$setup.ExitCode

Caution

Silent setup needs a signed-in desktop user. A deployment agent running as SYSTEM, with nobody signed in, cannot use /S; that case needs Alcra’s manual commissioning procedure with an explicitly named Windows account.

If installation fails

Setup reports success only when the collector service is installed, running and verified. If anything goes wrong it stops and shows BioTrack setup could not finish, followed by the reason and the path of the setup log in the installing administrator’s temporary folder. A silent installation returns a non-zero exit code instead.

What to do:

1. Read the reason. Common causes are a missing prerequisite (for example .NET Framework 4.8.1 on ARM64) or an untrusted publisher.
2. Fix the cause and run the same installer again.
3. If it still fails, keep the setup log and send it to your support contact.

Application files can remain on the PC after a failed service setup. That does not mean BioTrack is installed; run setup again until it reports success.

If BioTrack is already installed and a BioTrack window is open, setup stops with Close BioTrack in all Windows user sessions, then run setup again. The collector keeps running. Close every BioTrack window, including in other users’ sessions, and run setup again. See Updates and uninstall for upgrading an existing installation.

Next step

Setup wizard Connect the terminal, create the administrator and record the first scan.