Windows MCP Server

Windows-MCP is a lightweight, open-source project that enables seamless integration between AI agents and the Windows operating system. Acting as an MCP server bridges the gap between LLMs and the Windows operating system, allowing agents to perform tasks such as file navigation, application control, UI interaction, QA testing, and more.

mcp-name: io.github.CursorTouch/Windows-MCP

Updates

• Windows-MCP reached 2M+ Users in Claude Desktop Extensiosn.
• Try out 🪟Windows-Use, an agent built using Windows-MCP.
• Windows-MCP is now available on PyPI (thus supports uvx windows-mcp)
• Windows-MCP is added to MCP Registry

Supported Operating Systems

• Windows 7
• Windows 8, 8.1
• Windows 10
• Windows 11

🎥 Demos

https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/d0e7ed1d-6189-4de6-838a-5ef8e1cad54e

https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/d2b372dc-8d00-4d71-9677-4c64f5987485

✨ Key Features

• Seamless Windows Integration
  Interacts natively with Windows UI elements, opens apps, controls windows, simulates user input, and more.

• Use Any LLM (Vision Optional) Unlike many automation tools, Windows-MCP doesn't rely on any traditional computer vision techniques or specific fine-tuned models; it works with any LLMs, reducing complexity and setup time.

• Rich Toolset for UI Automation
  Includes tools for basic keyboard, mouse operation and capturing window/UI state.

• Lightweight & Open-Source
  Minimal dependencies and easy setup with full source code available under MIT license.

• Customizable & Extendable
  Easily adapt or extend tools to suit your unique automation or AI integration needs.

• Real-Time Interaction
  Typical latency between actions (e.g., from one mouse click to the next) ranges from 0.2 to 0.5 secs, and may slightly vary based on the number of active applications and system load, also the inferencing speed of the llm.

• DOM Mode for Browser Automation
  Special use_dom=True mode for State-Tool that focuses exclusively on web page content, filtering out browser UI elements for cleaner, more efficient web automation. Supports Chrome, Edge, and Firefox (Firefox uses an IAccessible2 fallback since it doesn't expose RootWebArea via UIA).

🛠️Installation

Note: When you install this MCP server for the first time it may take a minute or two because of installing the dependencies in pyproject.toml. In the first run the server may timeout ignore it and restart it.

Prerequisites

• Python 3.13+
• UV (Package Manager) from Astra, install with pip install uv or curl -LsSf https://astral.sh/uv/install.sh | sh
• English as the default language in Windows preferred else disable the App-Tool in the MCP Server for Windows with other languages.

Run at Login

Run the server directly when needed:

uvx windows-mcp serve
uvx windows-mcp serve --transport sse --host localhost --port 8000
uvx windows-mcp serve --transport streamable-http --host localhost --port 8000

Install it as a background task that starts now and at every login:

windows-mcp install

# Or choose the HTTP transport and bind address explicitly
windows-mcp install --transport sse --host 127.0.0.1 --port 8000

This creates a per-user Scheduled Task named windows-mcp-server and a wrapper script at ~/.windows-mcp/start-server.cmd. Use windows-mcp uninstall to remove it. Logs are written to ~/.windows-mcp/server.log and ~/.windows-mcp/server.error.log.

1. Install Claude Desktop.

npm install -g @anthropic-ai/mcpb

1. Configure the MCP server.

Option A: Install from PyPI (Recommended)

Use uvx to run the latest version directly from PyPI.

Add this to your claude_desktop_config.json:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "windows-mcp": {
      "command": "uvx",
      "args": [
        "windows-mcp",
        "serve"
      ]
    }
  }
}

Option B: Install from Source

1. Clone the repository:

git clone https://github.com/CursorTouch/Windows-MCP.git
cd Windows-MCP

1. Add this to your claude_desktop_config.json:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "windows-mcp": {
      "command": "uv",
      "args": [
        "--directory",
        "<path to the windows-mcp directory>",
        "run",
        "windows-mcp",
        "serve"
      ]
    }
  }
}

1. Fully restart Claude Desktop and verify the server appears in the MCP tools list.

Claude Desktop MSIX (Windows Store)

The MSIX-packaged Claude Desktop (Microsoft Store version) virtualizes %APPDATA%. This causes two main issues:

1. The config file is located at: %LOCALAPPDATA%\Packages\Claude_pzs8sxrjxfjjc\LocalCache\Roaming\Claude\claude_desktop_config.json (not %APPDATA%\Claude\).
2. Automatic installation from the "Claude Directory" will fail because the ${__dirname} variable resolves to the incorrect (non-virtualized) path.

To configure Windows-MCP on the Windows Store version of Claude:

You must manually edit the configuration file. Note that Electron apps in the MSIX sandbox do not inherit the system PATH, so you must use the full absolute path to uvx.exe (or uv.exe).

Option A: Using pre-installed executable

1. In a terminal, run uv tool install windows-mcp.
2. Use the generated executable in your config:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "windows-mcp": {
      "command": "C:\\Users\\<user>\\.local\\bin\\windows-mcp.exe",
      "args": ["serve"]
    }
  }
}

Option B: Using uvx

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "windows-mcp": {
      "command": "C:\\Users\\<user>\\.local\\bin\\uvx.exe",
      "args": ["windows-mcp", "serve"]
    }
  }
}

Option C: Install from Source

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "windows-mcp": {
      "command": "C:\\Users\\<user>\\.local\\bin\\uv.exe",
      "args": [
        "--directory",
        "C:\\path\\to\\Windows-MCP",
        "run",
        "windows-mcp",
        "serve"
      ]
    }
  }
}

Replace <user> with your Windows username. To find the correct paths, run where uvx, where windows-mcp, or where uv. Fully quit Claude Desktop (Tray → Quit) and reopen after saving the config.

For additional Claude Desktop integration troubleshooting, see the MCP documentation.

1. Install Perplexity Desktop.
2. Open Perplexity Desktop and go to Settings -> Connectors -> Add Connector -> Advanced.
3. Enter the name as Windows-MCP, then paste one of the following configs.

Option A: Install from PyPI (Recommended)

{
  "command": "uvx",
  "args": [
    "windows-mcp",
    "serve"
  ]
}

Option B: Install from Source

{
  "command": "uv",
  "args": [
    "--directory",
    "<path to the windows-mcp directory>",
    "run",
    "windows-mcp",
    "serve"
  ]
}

1. Click Save, then restart Perplexity Desktop if needed.

For additional Claude Desktop integration troubleshooting, see the Perplexity MCP Support. The documentation includes helpful tips for checking logs and resolving common issues.

1. Install Gemini CLI.

npm install -g @google/gemini-cli

1. Open %USERPROFILE%/.gemini/settings.json.
2. Add the windows-mcp config and save it.

{
  "theme": "Default",
  ...
  "mcpServers": {
    "windows-mcp": {
      "command": "uvx",
      "args": [
        "windows-mcp",
        "serve"
      ]
    }
  }
}

Note: To run from source, replace the command with uv and args with ["--directory", "<path>", "run", "windows-mcp", "serve"].

1. Restart Gemini CLI.

npm install -g @qwen-code/qwen-code@latest

1. Open %USERPROFILE%/.qwen/settings.json.
2. Add the windows-mcp config and save it.

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "windows-mcp": {
      "command": "uvx",
      "args": [
        "windows-mcp",
        "serve"
      ]
    }
  }
}

Note: To run from source, replace the command with uv and args with ["--directory", "<path>", "run", "windows-mcp", "serve"].

1. Restart Qwen Code.

npm install -g @openai/codex

1. Open %USERPROFILE%/.codex/config.toml.
2. Add the windows-mcp config and save it.

[mcp_servers.windows-mcp]
command="uvx"
args=[
  "windows-mcp",
  "serve"
]

Note: To run from source, replace the command with uv and args with ["--directory", "<path>", "run", "windows-mcp", "serve"].

1. Restart Codex CLI.

1. Install Claude Code:

npm install -g @anthropic-ai/claude-code

1. Configure the server:

Option A: Install from PyPI (Recommended)

Use uvx to run the latest version directly from PyPI.

claude mcp add --transport stdio windows-mcp -- uvx windows-mcp serve

Option B: Install from Source

1. Clone the repository:

git clone https://github.com/CursorTouch/Windows-MCP.git
cd Windows-MCP

1. Run the following command in your terminal:

claude mcp add --transport stdio windows-mcp -- uv --directory "<path>" run windows-mcp serve

Note: To make the server available across all projects, add --scope user to the command.

1. Rerun Claude Code in terminal. Enjoy 🥳

Note: On Windows, if you encounter "Connection closed" errors, use the full path to uvx.exe:

claude mcp add --transport stdio windows-mcp -- C:\Users\<user>\.local\bin\uvx.exe windows-mcp serve

To verify the server is registered, run claude mcp list. Inside Claude Code, use /mcp to check server status.

WSL (Windows Subsystem for Linux)

If you run Claude Code from WSL, the MCP server must still execute on the Windows side (it needs Windows APIs for UI automation). Use powershell.exe as the command to bridge WSL and Windows:

1. Install uv on Windows (from a PowerShell terminal):

irm https://astral.sh/uv/install.ps1 | iex

1. From your WSL terminal, register the server:

claude mcp add windows-mcp --transport stdio -s user -- powershell.exe -Command "C:\Users\<user>\.local\bin\uvx.exe windows-mcp serve"

Replace <user> with your Windows username. The -s user flag makes the server available across all projects.

1. Restart Claude Code and verify with /mcp.

---

🖥️ Running Windows-MCP

Windows-MCP runs directly on your Windows machine and exposes its tools to the connected MCP client.

# Runs with stdio transport (default)
uvx windows-mcp serve

# Or with SSE/Streamable HTTP for network access
uvx windows-mcp serve --transport sse --host localhost --port 8000
uvx windows-mcp serve --transport streamable-http --host localhost --port 8000

Optional environment variables can be set to customize behavior — see Environment Variables below.

Security for Remote Access

For network access, enable authentication and TLS:

windows-mcp serve --transport sse --host 0.0.0.0 \
  --auth-key "your_secret_token" \
  --ip-allowlist "203.0.113.0/24" \
  --ssl-certfile cert.pem --ssl-keyfile key.pem

See 🔐 Security & Access Control for all options.

Transport Options

---

🔐 Security & Access Control

Authentication

windows-mcp serve --transport sse --host 0.0.0.0 --auth-key "your_token"

Requires Authorization: Bearer your_token header on all requests.

IP Allowlist

windows-mcp serve --auth-key "token" --ip-allowlist "203.0.113.0/24,198.51.100.5"

Restricts connections to specified CIDR ranges. Blocks private/loopback IPs by default.

CORS Origins

By default, no CORS headers are emitted. Browsers block cross-origin requests via their own Same-Origin Policy, which means arbitrary websites cannot reach the MCP control plane even if the server is on localhost. Host-header validation (DNS rebinding protection) is also applied automatically based on the bind address.

If you need a browser-based MCP client to reach the server, opt in with an explicit origin allowlist:

windows-mcp serve --cors-origins "https://my-client.example.com,https://other.example.com"

Only the listed origins receive Access-Control-Allow-Origin headers; all other cross-origin requests are rejected by the browser. The equivalent environment variable is WINDOWS_MCP_CORS_ORIGINS.

Tool Selection

All tools are enabled by default. Use --tools to whitelist specific tools, or --exclude-tools to block specific ones.

windows-mcp serve --tools "Screenshot,Click,Snapshot"   # Enable only these tools
windows-mcp serve --exclude-tools "PowerShell,Registry" # Disable specific tools

TLS/HTTPS

openssl req -x509 -newkey rsa:4096 -keyout key.pem -out cert.pem -days 365 -nodes

windows-mcp serve --ssl-certfile cert.pem --ssl-keyfile key.pem

OAuth 2.0 + PKCE

For MCP clients that use OAuth (e.g. Claude Desktop) instead of a static API key:

windows-mcp serve --transport streamable-http --host 0.0.0.0 \
  --ssl-certfile ~/.windows-mcp/cert.pem \
  --ssl-keyfile  ~/.windows-mcp/key.pem \
  --oauth-client-id my-client \
  --oauth-client-secret my-secret

Claude Desktop config:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "windows-mcp": {
      "type": "http",
      "url": "https://<host>:8000/mcp/",
      "oauth": {
        "clientId": "my-client",
        "clientSecret": "my-secret"
      }
    }
  }
}

The OAuth server exposes:

• GET /.well-known/oauth-authorization-server — server metadata (RFC 8414)
• GET /oauth/authorize — Authorization Code + PKCE (S256 required)
• POST /oauth/token — token exchange (client secret required)
• POST /oauth/register — disabled; clients must be pre-provisioned

Dynamic client registration is disabled. Redirect URIs must be loopback http(s) only. Auth key and OAuth can coexist — both are accepted as valid Bearer tokens.

Config File (~/.windows-mcp/config.toml)

Instead of passing flags every time, store your configuration in ~/.windows-mcp/config.toml. CLI flags always override config file values.

Search order:

1. --config /path/to/config.toml
2. ~/.windows-mcp/config.toml

stdio — local only, no security needed:

[server]
transport = "stdio"

SSE — network access with auth and IP restriction:

[server]
transport = "sse"
host      = "0.0.0.0"
port      = 8000
auth_key  = "your-secret-key"

[security]
ip_allowlist = ["192.168.1.0/24"]

Streamable HTTP — with auth, TLS, and tool exclusions:

[server]
transport    = "streamable-http"
host         = "0.0.0.0"
port         = 8000
auth_key     = "your-secret-key"
ssl_certfile = "cert.pem"   # resolved relative to ~/.windows-mcp/
ssl_keyfile  = "key.pem"

[security]
ip_allowlist        = ["192.168.1.0/24"]
cors_origins        = ["https://my-client.example.com"]   # optional — browser CORS opt-in
oauth_client_id     = "my-client"      # optional — enables OAuth 2.0 + PKCE
oauth_client_secret = "my-secret"

[tools]
exclude = ["PowerShell", "Registry"]   # disable specific tools

Place cert and key files in the same directory:

~/.windows-mcp/
├── config.toml
├── cert.pem
└── key.pem

Generate a self-signed cert directly into that directory:

mkdir -p ~/.windows-mcp
openssl req -x509 -newkey rsa:4096 \
  -keyout ~/.windows-mcp/key.pem \
  -out ~/.windows-mcp/cert.pem \
  -days 365 -nodes

auth Helper

Generate an auth key and save a working config to ~/.windows-mcp/config.toml:

windows-mcp auth

Generate auth plus a self-signed TLS certificate:

windows-mcp auth --transport streamable-http --host 0.0.0.0 --port 8000 --with-tls

This command writes the auth key into the config file, can generate cert.pem and key.pem, and prints an example MCP client configuration for the selected transport.

SSRF Protection

Scrape tool blocks: private IPs, loopback, link-local, credentials-in-URLs, non-HTTP schemes.

---

⚙️ Environment Variables

All variables are optional unless noted. Set them via the env key in claude_desktop_config.json (or your MCP client's equivalent config).

Screenshot & Snapshot

Security

Telemetry

Debug

Example claude_desktop_config.json:

Local (no security):

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "windows-mcp": {
      "command": "uvx",
      "args": ["windows-mcp", "serve"],
      "env": { "WINDOWS_MCP_SCREENSHOT_SCALE": "0.5" }
    }
  }
}

Remote (with auth + IP allowlist + TLS):

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "windows-mcp": {
      "command": "uvx",
      "args": ["windows-mcp", "serve", "--transport", "sse", "--host", "0.0.0.0"],
      "env": {
        "WINDOWS_MCP_AUTH_KEY": "your_token",
        "WINDOWS_MCP_IP_ALLOWLIST": "203.0.113.0/24",
        "WINDOWS_MCP_SSL_CERTFILE": "/path/to/cert.pem",
        "WINDOWS_MCP_SSL_KEYFILE": "/path/to/key.pem"
      }
    }
  }
}

---

🔨MCP Tools

MCP Client can access the following tools to interact with Windows:

• Click: Click on the screen at the given coordinates.
• Type: Type text on an element (optionally clears existing text).
• Scroll: Scroll vertically or horizontally on the window or specific regions.
• Move: Move mouse pointer or drag (set drag=True) to coordinates.
• Shortcut: Press keyboard shortcuts (Ctrl+c, Alt+Tab, etc).
• Wait: Pause for a defined duration.
• WaitFor: Wait until text, an active window, an element, or a focused element appears by polling UI state inside one tool call.
• Screenshot: Fast screenshot-first desktop capture with cursor position, active/open windows, and an image. Skips UI tree extraction for speed and should be the default first call when you mainly need visual context. Supports display=[0] or display=[0,1] to capture specific screens. After capture, a brief orange-red glowing border is drawn over the captured area as a visual confirmation (set WINDOWS_MCP_DISABLE_FLASH=1 to disable).
• Snapshot: Full desktop state capture for workflows that need interactive element ids, scrollable regions, or use_dom=True browser extraction. Supports use_vision=True for including screenshots and display=[0] or display=[0,1] for limiting all returned Snapshot information to specific screens.
• App: To launch an application from the start menu, resize or move the window and switch between apps.
• PowerShell: To execute PowerShell commands.
• FileSystem: Read, write, copy, move, delete, list, search, and inspect files and directories.
• Scrape: To scrape the entire webpage for information.
• MultiSelect: Select multiple items (files, folders, checkboxes) with optional Ctrl key. Uses bulk label-to-coordinate resolution when labels are provided.
• MultiEdit: Enter text into multiple input fields at specified coordinates. Uses bulk label-to-coordinate resolution when labels are provided.
• Clipboard: Read or set Windows clipboard content.
• Process: List running processes or terminate them by PID or name.
• Notification: Send a Windows toast notification with a title and message.
• Registry: Read, write, delete, or list Windows Registry values and keys.

🤝 Connect with Us

Stay updated and join our community:

• 📢 Follow us on X for the latest news and updates

• 💬 Join our Discord Community

Star History

👥 Contributors

Thanks to all the amazing people who have contributed to Windows-MCP! 🎉

We appreciate every contribution, whether it's code, documentation, bug reports, or feature suggestions. Want to contribute? Check out our Contributing Guidelines!

🔒 Security

Important: Windows-MCP operates with full system access and can perform irreversible operations. Please review our comprehensive security guidelines before deployment.

For detailed security information, including:

• Tool-specific risk assessments
• Deployment recommendations
• Vulnerability reporting procedures
• Compliance and auditing guidelines

Please read our Security Policy.

📊 Telemetry

Windows-MCP collects usage data to help improve the MCP server. No personal information, no tool arguments, no outputs are tracked.

To disable telemetry, set ANONYMIZED_TELEMETRY to false in your MCP client configuration:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "windows-mcp": {
      "command": "uvx",
      "args": [
        "windows-mcp",
        "serve"
      ],
      "env": {
        "ANONYMIZED_TELEMETRY": "false"
      }
    }
  }
}

See the Environment Variables section for the full list of configurable options.

For detailed information on what data is collected and how it is handled, please refer to the Telemetry and Data Privacy section in our Security Policy.

📝 Limitations

• Selecting specific sections of the text in a paragraph, as the MCP is relying on a11y tree. (⌛ Working on it.)
• Type-Tool is meant for typing text, not programming in IDE because of it types program as a whole in a file. (⌛ Working on it.)
• This MCP server can't be used to play video games 🎮.

🪪 License

This project is licensed under the MIT License - see the LICENSE file for details.

🙏 Acknowledgements

Windows-MCP makes use of several excellent open-source projects that power its Windows automation features:

• UIAutomation

Huge thanks to the maintainers and contributors of these libraries for their outstanding work and open-source spirit.

🤝Contributing

Contributions are welcome! Please see CONTRIBUTING for setup instructions and development guidelines.

Made with ❤️ by CursorTouch

Citation

@software{
  author       = {CursorTouch},
  title        = {Windows-MCP: Lightweight open-source project for integrating LLM agents with Windows},
  year         = {2024},
  publisher    = {GitHub},
  url={https://github.com/CursorTouch/Windows-MCP}
}