Installation Manual

On this page, you'll learn:

How to install the MSP Challenge client for Windows
How to install the MSP Challenge client for macOS
How to install the full MSP Challenge Simulation Platform for Windows

Client-only installation instructions

This is useful if you only want to quickly try out MSP Challenge, or if you are an end user getting ready to join an MSP Challenge session. This is because you will only install the client application, i.e., the application that end users use. After installation you can log on to one of our demo servers. Note that this is suitable for demonstration purposes only (so not full-on sessions) as the demo servers are accessible to anyone anywhere in the world and reset themselves daily.

Instructions for Windows 10 or 11

Note that we officially started supporting Windows 11 since version 4.0-beta10.

You have two options:

Download the ZIP file from the Download page, unpack the MSP Challenge folder contained in it to a location of your choice (e.g. the Documents folder or the Desktop), open that folder, and run MSP Challenge.exe. If you like, you can create a Shortcut to MSP Challenge.exe and put it on your Desktop or your Start Menu.
Or download the latest client-only installer from the Download page and run it. You'll be presented with an installation wizard. Just follow the steps. The installer will add a shortcut to your Start menu, and optionally one on your Desktop (depending on whether you selected that option during installation).

Instructions for macOS

Simply download the latest client-only ZIP from the Download page, and allow macOS to unpack it first. If you like, you can then drag the MSP Challenge app over to Applications and/or your Dock.

Full platform installation instructions

Only install the full platform if you intend to turn your computer into a server, i.e., a computer open to participants with the client to connect to, thus a computer open to outside connections.

Fresh installations

The full platform is Windows 10, 11 (since 4.0-beta10) or Windows Server 2016/2019 only. Just download the full-platform installer from the Download page and run it.

You'll be presented with an installation wizard. Just follow the steps. The installer will add the following shortcuts to your Start menu, and optionally on your Desktop (depending on whether you selected that option during installation):

MSP Challenge Client: the same client application as you would get with client-only installation
MSP Challenge Server Manager: the web application with which you set up your MSP Challenge sessions
MSP Challenge Server Configuration Editor: an application with which you can create or alter session configurations

The server-side of MSP Challenge functions as a web application. The full platform therefore also installs and configures XAMPP, specifically a bundle of Apache2 web server, MariaDB database server and PHP7 (and Symfony since 4.0-beta10). It sets up a random root password for your MariaDB root user.

Note: As of version 4.0-beta9, the full platform uninstaller will also completely uninstall XAMPP. Previous versions did not do this during uninstallation.

Upgrading from a previous version

When you already have a previous version of the full platform installed, you should first uninstall it and then install the newest version.

This means that absolutely everything will be replaced and upgraded. You'll lose your existing MSP Challenge sessions!

So... IMPORTANT! You'll have to backup your existing MSP Challenge sessions using the Save feature, and by then downloading the ZIP file to your computer. Make sure the save and download work, by reuploading the saved ZIP and reloading the saved session. Did everything work? Then you're ready for the upgrade.

You'll be able to re-upload the ZIP file again after the upgrade, and then you'll be able to reload a session using that save.

Note: after upgrading, if the Server Manager returns errors, it might require a 'hard refresh'. Press the Shift key and click on the Refresh button in your browser while logged on to the Server Manager to do this.