Overview
This guide provides details for using and configuring Guild for Windows environments.
Activate Virtual Environments
Command Line
To activate a virtual environment on Windows, run activate.bat, which is located in the Scripts directory of the virtual environment:
<venv>\Scripts\activate.bat
Power Shell
If you’re running Power Shell, run Activate.ps1 instead:
<venv>\Scripts\Activate.ps1
Set Environment Variables
Guild makes use of various environment variables, in particular GUILD_HOME, which specifies where Guild saves runs and cached files. Setting environment variables in Windows is different from POSIX systems like Linux and macOS.
For detailed help, refer to HowTo: Set an Environment Variable in Windows - Command Line and Registry by Dowd and Associates.
Symbolic Links Privileges in Windows
The following Guild commands require special privileges on Windows to create symbolic links:
-
run- Symbolic links are used when linking required resource files. -
tensorboard- Symbolic links are used when constructing the TensorBoard log directory used to view selected runs.
You can satisfy this requirement using one of two techniques:
- Run the command using Administrative privileges
- Granting the current user Symbolic Link privileges
While generally we do no advocate running commands as Administrator, this methods is considerably simpler than granting the current user Symbolic Link privileges.
For more information, see:
- Start a Command Prompt as an Administrator (Microsoft Documentation)
- Create symbolic links (Microsoft Documentation)