How to install Jellyfin on Windows 10 and 11

Updated October 6, 2026 · 6 min read

You want to install Jellyfin on Windows and have it just work: on the TV, on phones, and with the movies on your NAS. This page walks through the install, then the four things that usually go wrong after it.

Before you start

You need a 64-bit PC running Windows 10 or 11 that stays on while people watch. It doesn't have to be new. Most of the work Jellyfin does is reading files and sending them over your network, which any recent PC handles. Converting video for phones or slow connections is the heavy part, and a graphics chip helps there (more on that below).

Know where your media lives. If it's on a drive inside the PC, you're set. If it's on a NAS or another computer, read the section on service or not before you click through the installer, because one choice there decides whether Jellyfin can see that share at all.

Install it, step by step

1. Download the Windows installer. Go to jellyfin.org/downloads/server, choose Windows, and download the installer for the current stable release.
2. Run the installer. Accept the license and keep the default install folder unless you have a reason to move it.
3. Choose how Jellyfin runs. The installer lets you install Jellyfin as a Windows service, and if you do, asks which account the service runs under. Jellyfin's own documentation recommends against the service install. For most homes, leave it off, so Jellyfin runs as you with a small icon in the notification area.
4. Finish and let it start. When the installer completes, Jellyfin starts on its own.
5. Open the setup page. In a browser on the same PC, go to http://localhost:8096. From another device at home, use the PC's address instead, such as http://192.168.1.20:8096.
6. Run the first-run wizard. Pick your language, create the administrator user with a strong password, and choose your preferred metadata language and country.
7. Add your libraries. Add one library per kind of content: Movies, Shows, Music. Point each at its folder, such as D:\Movies. Keeping kinds in separate folders makes Jellyfin match titles far more reliably.
8. Leave remote access for later. The wizard asks about remote connections. Allowing them doesn't open your router by itself. Watching away from home is its own job, covered in Jellyfin remote access.

Service or not: the network drive question

A Windows service starts before anyone signs in, which sounds ideal. The catch is the account it runs under. A service runs as a built-in system account, not as you, so it can't see the drive letters you mapped (such as Y:) and it doesn't have your saved network passwords. The result is the classic complaint: the library is set up, the scan finishes, and the library is empty.

If you already installed it as a service and your media is on a NAS, you have three ways out:

• Reinstall without the service option, so Jellyfin runs as you and sees what you see. The trade-off: after a restart, it starts only when you sign in.
• Keep the service and use a network path, such as \\nas\movies, instead of a drive letter. In Services, set the Jellyfin service's Log On account to a Windows user that has access to that share.
• Move the media onto a drive inside the PC.

The help topic Jellyfin and a mapped network drive covers what each of these looks like when it works.

Let devices at home through the firewall

The first time Jellyfin listens on the network, Windows may show a security alert asking whether to allow it. Allow it on private networks only. If you dismissed the alert, or it never appeared, phones and TVs will time out while the PC itself works fine.

1. Open Windows Security, then Firewall & network protection, then Allow an app through firewall.
2. Click Change settings, find Jellyfin in the list, and tick Private. If it isn't listed, use Allow another app and pick jellyfin.exe from the install folder.
3. Check that your home connection itself is set to private: in Settings > Network & internet, open your connection's properties and set the network profile to Private. On a public profile, the private rule doesn't apply.

Keep the PC awake

A sleeping PC is an offline server. Nobody can start a movie, and if you record TV, recordings are missed. Open Settings > System > Power & battery (on Windows 10, Power & sleep) and set the sleep timer for when the PC is plugged in to Never. The screen can still turn off; that doesn't affect Jellyfin. If hibernate is on, turn it off too. The help topic on PC sleep settings explains why a laptop on battery is a different case.

Faster video with your graphics card

When a device can't play a file as it is, Jellyfin converts it on the fly. On the processor alone, that can stall and buffer. On Windows, Jellyfin can hand the work to Intel Quick Sync, NVIDIA NVENC or AMD AMF instead. You choose one in the Dashboard's playback and transcoding settings, then tick the formats your chip can decode. Pick only what your hardware supports: choosing NVENC on a PC with no NVIDIA card makes those videos fail. Jellyfin hardware transcoding goes through it chip by chip.

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