Installing Solarsoft on a Windows PC

This document gives my method for installing Solarsoft on a Windows PC (tested on March 2022).

Step 1 - basic installation

Go to the Solarsoft Installation form at LMSAL. You can use the drop down list 'SSW Path Suggestions' to select a path. I manually entered 'C\Users\pryoung\ssw'.

Do not click on any of the options boxes for instruments. Instead go straight to the 'Generate installation script' button and click on it. You will see a link to Windows Installation (ZIP) file. Download it.

Unpack the ZIP file and then run the 'setup.bat' file. Your computer may block this, but I was able to run it from a Command Prompt.

Step 2 - the sswidl.bat file

Navigate to ssw/site/setup and open the file 'sswidl.bat' in a text editor. Go to the line where SSW_INSTR is set. Now add instruments that you are interested in. Generally you just add the name of the instrument. For example, you can use 'aia hmi eis iris lasco eit chianti norh'.

After saving, right-click on the sswidl.bat file from File Explorer, then create a Desktop shortcut for the file. (Perhaps rename the shortcut as 'SolarSoft'.)

Step 3 - perform your first update

Click on your shortcut to start up IDLDE. You should see that it starts up in the SSW environment.

Perform your first update by doing:

IDL> .r go_update_ssw

This may take a while (hours) if you've added lots of instruments.

Step 4 - set up regular updates

To do!

Page maintained by Dr Peter R Young.