Windows 10 & 11 Setup

Installation, Checksum Verification & Safe Updates

Why we distribute a transparent portable launcher package (.zip with .bat + Python source) rather than an opaque packed binary—and how to install, verify, and update it safely on Windows.

1. Prerequisites (Windows 10 / 11 + Python 3.10+)

The application runs on 64-bit Windows 10 and Windows 11 with Python 3.10 or newer (tested on Python 3.13.2). To check if Python is already installed on your PC, open PowerShell or Command Prompt and run:

python --version

If Python is not installed, download the official Windows installer from python.org/downloads/windows and make sure to check “Add python.exe to PATH” on the first screen of the installer.

2. Verify the SHA-256 Checksum

After downloading Shirube-YouTube-Transcript-Tool-v1.1.1-win64.zip, you can verify file integrity using Windows’ built-in CertUtil or PowerShell:

Get-FileHash .\Shirube-YouTube-Transcript-Tool-v1.1.1-win64.zip -Algorithm SHA256

# Expected SHA-256 for v1.1.1 (2026-10-21):
# 57f04ac83d204d80e82d0d702191d6f85af2e3dbad9ab444ed9d27db0777870e

3. Windows SmartScreen Note on First Launch

Because Start-App.bat is a downloaded batch script, Windows Defender SmartScreen may display a blue “Windows protected your PC” prompt the first time you double-click it. Because the entire source code (app.py, cli.py, core/*.py) is human-readable plain text inside the folder, you can inspect every line in Notepad or VS Code before clicking More info → Run anyway (or run python app.py directly from your terminal).

4. Updating Without Losing Settings or Cached Transcripts

• Update Extraction Engine Only (1 Click): Whenever YouTube updates its player layout, double-click Update-Engine.bat inside the app folder to upgrade yt-dlp and youtube-transcript-api to the latest release.
• Upgrade App Version: Your user preferences live in %APPDATA%\ShirubeYTTranscript\config.json and your extracted channel data lives in your chosen output folder (channel_cache.db). Extracting a newer ZIP version never overwrites your settings or database.
• Uninstall: Delete the extracted application folder and (optionally) remove %APPDATA%\ShirubeYTTranscript. No registry keys or background services are installed.