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Installing Flashback takes about two minutes. Download the installer from GitHub Releases, run it, and the app will place itself in your system tray and wait for you to open it. This page covers system requirements, the install steps, and where Flashback stores its data on your machine.

System Requirements

Before installing, confirm your system meets the following requirements. Flashback relies on OS-level capture APIs and optional hardware encoders that are tied to specific GPU generations.

Operating System

Windows 10 build 1903 (May 2019 Update) or later, or Windows 11 (any version). The Windows Graphics Capture API required by Flashback was introduced in build 1903.

Graphics (Capture)

Any GPU with DirectX 11 support and WGC compatibility. This covers virtually all discrete and integrated GPUs from 2012 onward.

Graphics (Encoding)

Hardware encoding is optional but recommended. See the encoder requirements below. Flashback falls back to software encoding automatically.

Storage

Clips are stored in %USERPROFILE%\Videos\Flashback\Clips\. Make sure the drive hosting your Videos folder has enough free space for your recording sessions.

Hardware Encoder Requirements

EncoderVendorMinimum Hardware
NVENCNVIDIAGeForce GTX 600 series or later (Kepler+)
AMFAMDRadeon RX 400 series or later (Polaris+)
Quick SyncIntel6th Generation Core (Skylake) or later
SoftwareAny CPU — used automatically if no encoder is found
If you are unsure which encoder your system supports, leave the encoder setting on Auto. Flashback will probe available encoders at startup and select the best one. You can verify the active encoder in Settings → Encoder.

Install Steps

1

Download the installer

Go to the Flashback Releases page and download the latest .exe installer. The filename will look like Flashback_1.1.1_x64-setup.exe.
2

Run the installer

Double-click the downloaded file to launch the installer. On some systems, Windows SmartScreen will appear before the setup window opens.
Windows SmartScreen may block the installer. Because Flashback releases are not signed with a commercial code-signing certificate, Windows may show a blue “Windows protected your PC” dialog. This is expected for unsigned builds. To proceed:
  1. Click More info in the SmartScreen dialog.
  2. Click Run anyway.
The installer itself is safe — you can verify the SHA-256 checksum posted on the Releases page if you want to confirm the file has not been tampered with.
Follow the installer prompts. Flashback installs to %LOCALAPPDATA%\Programs\Flashback\ by default.
3

Complete the installation

The installer will finish in a few seconds. At the end, leave Launch Flashback checked (or run it manually from the Start menu). Flashback does not add a desktop shortcut by default.
4

Find the tray icon

After launch, Flashback does not open a window immediately — it starts minimized to the system tray (the icons area in the bottom-right corner of the taskbar). Look for the Flashback icon there. If you don’t see it, click the ^ (Show hidden icons) arrow in the taskbar to reveal it.
5

Open the main window

You can open the Flashback window at any time in two ways:
  • Double-click the Flashback tray icon.
  • Press the global hotkey Alt+F10 from anywhere, even while a game is running.
The main window is fixed at 1200×675 and uses a custom titlebar. Closing the window sends it back to the tray — it does not quit the app. To fully exit Flashback, right-click the tray icon and choose Quit.

Data Locations

Flashback stores two categories of data on your system.

Application Data

Configuration files, clip metadata, thumbnails, and temporary audio files are stored in:
%APPDATA%\com.flashback.app\
This folder contains:
File / FolderContents
settings.jsonCapture settings, encoder preference, hotkeys
edits.jsonSaved editor state for each clip
thumbs\Auto-generated clip thumbnails
audio\Temporary audio files used during capture and editing

Clips

Recorded clips are saved to:
%USERPROFILE%\Videos\Flashback\Clips\
This resolves to something like C:\Users\YourName\Videos\Flashback\Clips\ on a default Windows installation. The clips folder location can be changed in Settings → Storage.
If you want to move your clips to a different drive, change the output path in Settings → Storage before starting your first recording. Existing clips will not be moved automatically.

Updating Flashback

Flashback does not currently auto-update. To update to a newer version, download the latest installer from the Releases page and run it over your existing installation. Your settings and clips are preserved.

Uninstalling

Uninstall Flashback through Windows Settings → Apps (search for “Flashback”) or Control Panel → Programs → Uninstall a program. The uninstaller removes the application binary but leaves your clips and app data folder intact. To remove those as well, delete %APPDATA%\com.flashback.app\ and %USERPROFILE%\Videos\Flashback\ manually after uninstalling.

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